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I LLUSTRATED 
HISTORY OF THE 



Borough 
of Queens 



NEW YORK CITY 



By GEORGE VON SKAL 



COMPILED BY 

F. T. SMILEY PUBLISHING CO., NEW YORK CITY 

Far /Af FLUSHING JOURNAL 

1908 




h^'ji.-t 



'p- 



INTRODUCTION 



HISTORY, in the true sense of the word, is a narrative of past events. But 
when we undertake to write the history of a city, or of a part of a large city, 
which is not past and gone, but has rather arrived at the point where its 
growth and development have received an impetus stronger and more effective than 
all the factors which in the past have been influential in shaping its destinies, we 
must as a matter of course take present conditions into account. For history shall 
not only show us how things and conditions were in the past, but it has the much 
higher and more important function of teaching us why those who came before us 
have succeeded or failed, wherein they excelled or what errors they committed, that 
we may profit by the experience of bygone ages and remain as free from errors as it 
is possible for mortal man to be. The history of a city that still exists and increases 
almost daily in greatness, in size, in population and in riches, should therefore not 
be a record of past achievements only, but it must, in order to be complete, furnish 
us with a vivid picture of the population as it is at the time the story is written. 
Every good and complete history must enable the student or reader to glance into 
the future, and to form conclusions, from the facts narrated, as to what shape the 
further development will take. In a case like the one before us there is no better 
way of judging the future than an exact knowledge of the forces which have made 
the community what it is to-day, and which are at work at present in building it up. 
For these reasons the history of the Borough of Queens contained in the fol- 
lowing pages does not confine itself to the past. It does indeed furnish a complete 
sketch of the settlement of the territory from the time when the first white man set 
foot upon the soil of Long Island, and it follows the efforts made to change a wilder- 
ness into a blooming garden through the march of the centuries, but it goes further. 
It shows how the borough has been developed, and in what manner, and for what 
reasons it is apt to grow in the future. It points out the great natural advantages the 
territory possesses, and the enterprises which, in the near future, will tend to bring 
about even greater changes than the past has produced. The history naturally deals 
with the men who have played important roles in the shaping of the destinies of the 
localities now forming the Borough of Queens in the past, and who have left their 
mark upon the conditions evolving slowly from insecurity almost amounting at times 
to chaos, until a staple and regular government was formed. But it shows, in addi- 
tion, in the biographies of men who are at the present time interested in the welfare of 
the borough, and who, in public life or private enterprise, are devoting themselves to 
the upbuilding of the community, the forces that are at work. No better way could 
be found, in our opinion, to show what Queens is now, and what it is destined to be, 
for the work of man, even if intended for the day only, always influences the future 
and it is impossible to draw a line that divides sharply the work of those living from 
that of coming generations. Those who come after us will have to build upon what 
we have accomplished ; they cannot entirely get away from it, and even if they choose 
new paths, they must reckon with those laid out by their forerunners. 

The "History of the Borough of Queens," to the perusal of which the reader is 
now invited gives thus a complete record of the past, a vivid pen picture of the present, 
and affords a glance into the future. It deals with what has been accomplished, with 
what is being done, and with the things the future will bring. It is not an idle 
attempt to draw aside the veil that hides all things still buried in the impenetrable 
future, but simply an earnest though conservative effort to draw conclusions from the 
past and present in order to discern the certain results of sincere endeavors to make 
the borough as important as it deserves to be on account of its natural advantages, its 
location and the quality of its inhabitants. And with the sincere belief that honest 
effort in this direction will be appreciated the book is laid before the public. 

The Publishers 



A HISTORY OF 
THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



PART I 




T is positively known now, 
that New York Bay was 
first discovered by Jean de 
Verrazzano, a Florentine .in 
the employ of Francis I of 
France. But as nothing came 
of this discovery because the 
French government took no steps to secure pos- 
session of the new country beyond talking about 
plans for its settlement, it is eminently proper 
that Henry Hudson be considered as the real 
discoverer of that part of the American continent 
which was destined to become its industrial, 
financial, and, to some extent at least, also its 
political center. The English had already, by 
proclamation, taken possession of the whole east- 
ern coast of North America from Cape Fear to 
Nova Scotia, in 1606, when James I granted a 
charter for the colonization of "that part of 
America, commonly called Virginia, and other 
parts and territories in America either apper- 
taining to us or which are not actually possessed 
by any Christian prince or people." Regardless 
of this proclamation, the French had just 
founded a settlement at Quebec, when Henry 
Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the 
Dutch East India Company, after vainly search- 
ing for the Northwest Passage, arrived with the 
ship Half Moon at the coast of Long Island, at- 
tempted to enter Jamaica Bay through Rockaway 
Inlet, remained at anchor in Gravesend Bay, and, 
on September 3, 1609, passed through the Nar- 
rows and sailed up the river that bears his 
name. It is an indisputable fact, therefore, that 
Long Island was discovered before Manhattan, 
and it is also true, that the first white man killed 
in the neighborhood of New York by the aborig- 
ines came to death on Coney Island and was 
buried either there or on the shore of Sandy 
Hook. Hudson reported that his grave was on 
Colman's Hook, this being the name of the un- 
fortunate sailor, but this designation has long 
since disappeared from the maps if it was ever 
used by anybody but Hudson and his crew. 



The Dutch were quicker to realize the value 
of Manhattan Island than the French more than 
a century before, and founded the colony of New 
Amsterdam. It had taken them some time to 
ascertain that Long Island was not a part of the 
mainland, the explorer Adrian Block being the 
first white man who circumnavigated it, in 1614. 
It was but natural that some time elapsed before 
colonists settled on Long Island. When they 
came, a conflict between the English and the 
Dutch sprang up almost immediately. While the 
latter had strengthened their forces on Manhat- 
tan, the English settlements in New England had 
also increased and spread. Consequently Dutch 
settlers came from the west, and Englishmen 
from the east. Long Island became disputed 
territory, both nations claiming it. There were 
no open hostilities but considerable friction. It 
is a remarkable fact that the Puritans who orig- 
inally had asked the Prince of Orange and the 
States General to be permitted to settle in 
America under th^ir protection and as their sub- 
jects, were much more hostile to the Dutch than 
the Cavaliers who had settled in Virginia. Sir 
John Harvey, the governor of Virginia, said to 
the Hollanders who complained that the New 
England Puritans intended to deprive them of 
their rights : "There is land enough ; we should 
be good neighbors. You will have no trouble 
from us, if only those of New England do not 
approach too near you." 

During the whole time of the occupation of 
Manhattan and the surrounding country by the 
Hollanders, the English never gave up the claim 
to the whole Atlantic coast of North America, 
which they derived from the charter granted by 
James I. One of the last acts of the Plymouth 
Company had been to give a grant of lands in 
New England and on Long Island to Lord Ster- 
ling. He sent an agent, James Farret, to Amer- 
ica to sell his holdings. Farret claimed the 
whole of Long Island and induced a colony from 
Lynn, Mass., to settle at Cow Bay. For himself 
he secured Shelter Island and Robins Island in 



8 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



Peconic Bay, and also confirmed the title Lion 
Gardiner held to the island bearing his name. But 
Farret's, or rather Lord Sterling's, pretensions 
came to naught. The Dutch authorities took no 
notice of them, and the agent finally returned to 
Europe without having accomplished anything. 

It appears from what seems good authority 
that no settlements were made on Long Island 




■'i iMMjtimiimmmarn 

FAR ROCKAW.W 

before 1636, though it is possible that some col- 
onists took up lands in Flatlands, Kings County, 
a little before that time. The title to the present 
Queens County was purchased from the Indians 
in 1639 by Governor Kieft. Soon after villages 
began to spring up all over the western end of 
the island. Flushing, a corruption of the orig- 
inal Dutch name Vlissingen, was founded in 1645, 
Flatbush (originally Midwout) in 1651, New 
Utrecht in 1657, and Bushwick in 1660. English 
immigrants were permitted to settle in the col- 
ony on condition of swearing allegiance to the 
Dutch government, and they founded the towns 
of Hempstead in 1643, Gravesend in 1645, Ja- 
maica in 1655, and Newtown in 1656. 

But while the colonists dwelt in close prox- 
imity, considering the conditions of the times, 
they did not always live in harmony. The dif- 
ference in character and political ideas was too 
great. The Dutch villages were entirely under 
the domination of the governor of the colony, 
who appointed all their officials, leaving them no 
right to self-government in temporal or eccle- 
siastical affairs. The English colonists had at 
least a semblance of home rule. They were per- 
mitted to elect their officials, although these had 
to be confirmed by the governor, and they man- 
aged their own affairs to some extent at least 
through the town meeting as they had done be- 
fore. They were not always permitted to do this 
undisturbed, for every once in a while some 
governor attempted to deprive them of their 
privileges. One of these governors was Peter 
Stuyvesant, who abridged the liberties hereto- 
fore enjoyed by the English settlers to such an 
extent that they came together and representa- 



tives from the several towns sent a petition to 
the Dutch government, in which they prayed to 
be protected against the tyranny of the governor. 
They received, however, no answer, and when 
they assembled again with the intention of for- 
mulating another and stronger protest, they re- 
ceived orders from the governor to disperse and 
not to assemble again on such business. And 
they followed the order without a murmur, for 
the governor had the means to punish them if 
he were so inclined, and he was known as a man 
who did not hesitate to use cruel force if aroused. 
In spite of all efforts to settle the matter the 
possession of Long Island remained long in dis- 
pute. In 1650 a commission, consisting of two 
commissioners appointed by the Dutch govern- 
ment and two others representing the united 
colonies of New England, had established a line 
running southward from the most westerly 
part of Oyster Bay across the island. All the 
towns to the west of this line were to be under 
Dutch, all the towns to the east under English 
rule. But the Dutch government never formally 
recognized the terms of this settlement and con- 
tinued to claim the whole of Long Island, while 
inhabitants of New England came in ever larger 
numbers, and took up lands on either side of the 
line, often settling on property already owned by 
some Dutch subject. Conditions became still 
more mixed when the English crown granted a 
new charter to Connecticut in 1662 which was in- 
terpreted to include the whole of Long Island. 
The eastern towns availed themselves readily of 
the opportunity to place themselves under British 
rule, and this would have caused no difficulty. 
But the English towns in the western section, 




FLUSHING BAY 

which were scattered among Dutch settlements, 
did the same, and this caused considerable dis- 
turbance. This ended onl\- after England had 
taken possession of New Amsterdam in 1664. 

When the English commissioners arrived to 
take possession of the lands granted to the Duke 
of York, and Governor Stuyvesant surrendered, 
it did not look as if the different elements of 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



11 



the inhabitants of Long Island would quickly 
fuse. Considerable bitterness and even hatred 
had for a long time existed between the two 
races, many towns considering it necessary to 
construct fortifications in order to protect them- 
selves against hostilities on the part of the other 
faction. Besides, the population was divided by 
different views on many questions. The Hol- 
landers were industrious and pious but fond of 
the good things of life, while the English set- 
tlers were mostly Puritans and acted according- 
ly, even if they were not quite as intolerant as 
their brethren in New England. Still, they al- 
lowed no one to dwell among them who did not 
adopt their views and customs ; they punished 
the profanation of the Sabbath, lying, the use of 
profane language, the sale of intoxicating drinks 
severely, making free use of the whipping-post, 
the stocks and the pillory. There were really 
two factions, living close to each other and 
even intermingling, of whom one believed that 
everybody should get as much pleasure out of 
life as possible, while the other was just as 
deeply convinced that eternal perdition could only 
be avoided by crucifying every desire for ma- 
terial welfare. They were different and even 
wildly opposed to each other, in their views and 
customs as well as in regard to the treatment 
to be accorded to their fellow men. 

But the two factions had after all one desire 
in common that overshadowed all existing dif- 
ferences : the wish for security in their posses- 
sions against the government as well as against 
each other, and for protection against oppression 
and tyranny. This united them finally, though 
for some time the eastern part of the island 
persisted in its efforts to be classed with New 
England. In 1665 a convention of delegates 
from all the towns assembled at Hempstead in 
accordance with a proclamation issued by Gov- 
ernor Nicolls, "to settle good and known laws 
within this government for the future, and re- 
ceive your best advice and information at a 
general meeting." The most important part of 
this convention consisted in fixing the boun- 
daries of all the towns, and their relations to 
each other. The right and title to all lands oc- 
cupied by settlers were also determined for all 
time. The Hollanders, who had received patents 
from the Dutch government, were compelled to 
exchange them for new patents from the Eng- 
lish crown, and all the English settlers, who had 
held their land without any authority and were 
for the most part really squatters, were given 
patents, or, in some cases, so-called quit-rents 
which were later on the subject of much trouble 
and abuse. Soon after a code of laws was pro- 
mulgated which contained some of the pro- 
visions already adopted by the eastern towns. 



These were, however, not fully satisfied: Connect- 
icut still claimed them as her own, and their 
inhabitants did not feel inclined to give up their 
independence as members of a colony, in order 
to become subjects of the Duke of York. The 
Duke's representative remained firm in his dec- 
laration that the matter had been settled, and he 
had his way. At the convention of 1665 Long 
Island, Staten Island and Westchester were uni- 
ted after the English custom into a shire, and 
called Yorkshire. The colony was really ruled 
by the justices, who, in turn, were appointed by 
the governor, who wielded, in consequence, al- 
most dictatorial powers. The welfare of the 
people depended upon the qualities and the good 
will of the different governors, and conditions 
changed with each change in administration. As 
long as Governor Nicolls ruled, the people were 
satisfied, although they saw that their liberty 
was not at all greater than under Dutch rule, 
but when he was succeeded by Governor Love- 
lace, open dissatisfaction broke out. The new 
governor levied in 1670 a tax for repairing the 
fort at New York, and almost all the English 
towns on Long Island refused to pay this tax 
unless they were granted the same rights and 
privileges that all other subjects of the King 
enjoyed. The English colonists on Long Island 
had brought with them the doctrine that taxes 
could only be imposed with the consent of the 
people who had to pay them, or of their repre- 
sentatives in a general assembly. This was the 
first open manifestation of the spirit which later 
led to the revolution and the independence of the 
American colonies, and it appears that the tax 
which caused it was never collected, although 
Governor Lovelace was of the opinion that the 
best way to keep people submissive is to lay 
such taxes upon them as may not give them 
liberty to entertain any other thoughts but how 
they shall discharge them. This tyrant might 
have experienced the people's wrath and suffered 
the full consequences of his actions if the colony 
had not once more fallen into the hands of the 
Dutch in 1673. Fortunately, the occupation did 
not last long, otherwise civil war might have 
broken out, for while the Dutch part of the in- 
habitants naturally submitted readily to the new 
ruler, the English towns were quite ready to op- 
pose him with armed resistance. The New Eng- 
land colonies had already declared war against 
the Dutch when peace was concluded and the 
Duke of York took possession again. The peo- 
ple tried to resist the effort to expose them anew 
to the tyranny of the Duke's governors but they 
accomplished nothing until, in 1681, a new gov- 
ernor arrived in the person of Colonel Dongan, 
who summoned an assembly for the purpose of 
framing better laws for the colony. A bill of 



12 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



rights was adopted, many of the most obnoxious 
laws were altered, amended or done away with 
altogether, and better government seemed to be 
in view. The hopes the people had set in the 
new order of things faded away quickly, how- 
ever, for with the accession of James H to the 
English throne the governors ceased, doubtless 
instructed by the King, to call General Assem- 
blies, and ruled the colony again withoxit regard 
for the rights or wishes of the people. The 
downfall of the King and the beginning of the 
reign of William and Mary brought about the 
restoration of the limited measure of self-gov- 
ernment the colony had possessed. 

During the war with France Long Island was 
not directly disturbed by the operations of the 



war was ended. Many French prisoners were 
sent to Long Island, where they were given con- 
siderable liberty because escape was practically 
impossible. It is said that they passed most of 
their time hunting the game which at that time 
was plentiful. It may be mentioned here that 
long before another kind of prisoners had been 
sent to Long Island. When, in 1713, England ac- 
quired Nova Scotia, the French inhabitants were 
permitted to remain after taking the oath of 
allegiance. After the war between England and 
France had broken out it was found that these 
people did not seem inclined to keep the oath. 
They were simple in their habits, intensely relig- 
ious, quiet and apparently docile, but really fan- 
atics in politics, and very obstinate. It was de- 




NEW VERNOX AVENUE BRIDGE (OPEN ) LO.VG ISLAND CITY 



contending armies. It had, however, its full 
share of the burden. It contributed to the large 
sums raised for fortifying the colony, and it 
sent its full quota of soldiers to the front. Jona- 
than Lawrence of Queens and James Fanning of 
Suffolk raised recruits who served on the Cana- 
dian border. Lieutenant James Thorn led a 
number of men from Queens who were with 
Colonel Hicks's regiment at the defense of Fort 
Schenectady. A regiment commanded by Colonel 
Cockroft, which took part in the battle of 
Lake George under General Johnson, contained 
many Long Islanders. After the news of the 
victory had reached Queens, its inhabitants sent 
one thousand sheep and seventy cheeses to the 
army, and Kings paid for the transportation. In 
fact, in all the engagements of this war, Long 
Island and, of course. Queens County, were rep- 
resented. Under Colonel Isaac Corsa they 
fought at Ticonderoga and Frontenac, and Cap- 
tain Ephraim Morse with his lieutenants, George 
Dunbar and Roeloff Duryea, distinguished them- 
selves at Fort Niagara. They were present at 
the surrender of Montreal and served until the 



cided to remove and scatter them, and some were 
brought to Long Island where they have wholly 
disappeared among the population. 

The history of the war of the Revolution tells 
quite a different story. Long Island saw not 
only bloody battles fought on its soil, but was 
torn up by internecine strife. It has been men- 
tioned that the doctrine that no taxes should be 
levied without the consent of the people paying 
the taxes, the principle generally expressed in' 
few words as "No taxation without representa- 
tion," was first uttered in America on Long 
Island. The people had lost, but never surren- 
dered. They battled incessantly for this prin- 
ciple, and when the English crown finally re- 
fused to recognize it they arose in arms. At 
first they had no desire to cut loose from the 
mother country, but events moved swiftly, and 
out of an uprising for securing the same rights 
which all other English citizens possessed came 
a war for complete independence. Now, in spite 
of the fact that the inhabitants of Long Island 
had been the first to demand the right of deciding 
what taxes should be levied, they were by no 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEEXS 



15 



means unanimous when it came to open rebel- 
lion against the British crown. The eastern part, 
or Suffolk County, being largely settled by de- 
scendants of the Puritans, and having taken its 
principles from New England, was quite ready 
to join the patriots. But in the western part 
the conservative Dutch blood and the numerous 
families who were related to the English officials 
thought differently. It is a fact that in Queens 
County the sentiment of loyalty far exceeded the 
demand for liberty and independence. But there 
were other reasons which must be taken into ac- 
count. As soon as the Provincial Congress and 
the Revolutionary leaders heard of the strong 
pro-British sentiment in Kings and Queens, they 
made very active, and in some instances cruel 
and unscrupulous, efforts to crush it. These at- 
tempts led, as similar actions always do, to the 
results which should have been prevented. The 
Tories became more settled and firm in their 
opinion, and more active in their endeavors to 
assist the British and harm the Americans. In 
addition, the whole island soon fell into the 
hands of the British and became, after the battle 
on the twenty-seventh day of August, 1776, 
practically one large British garrison. General 
Howe ordered, as soon as he had landed, that 
every inhabitant who desired favor should ap- 
pear at headquarters where he would receive a 
certificate of protection. Every one who called 
was ordered to fasten a piece of red cloth to his 
hat, to distinguish him from the rebels. All 
Tories complied readily, as did also many others 
who stood in fear of violence. In fact, as soon 
as it became known that the red rag secured pro- 
tection from the parties in power, it was univer- 
sally worn. 

The inhabitants of Long Island really needed 
something to protect them from the consequences 
of the war. They were in a much more deplora- 
ble situation than the inhabitants of other re- 
gions. The island was overrun with British 
troops, and British wardships continually pa- 
trolled the coasts, ready to send landing parties 
to any village or settlement that was under sus- 
picion of harboring or assisting the rebels. The 
Tories on the island conducted a little war of 
their own, collecting bands of armed followers 
and descending with them upon farmers or even 
hamlets that were not under the protection guar- 
anteed by the British officials, to carry off stock 
and valuables. As if this were not enough, al- 
most every dark night brought parties of maraud- 
ers in boats from Connecticut to the North 
Shore, and from New Jersey to the South Shore. 
Some of them came with the praiseworthy in- 
tention to harass and harm the British and their 
S3rmpathizers but many were simply pirates who 
made use of the conditions of the times. To the 



inducements which caused many to wear the red 
rag, although they were really patriots, must be 
added the fact that the British soldiers were giv- 
en quarters in the farmers' houses during the 
winter. While the officers tried to prevent close 
relations with the members of the families, this 
was impossible. Many soldiers became friends of 
the farmers in whose houses they lived, and in 
some cases they even married American girls. 
The presence of the soldiers was by no means an 
unmixed evil, for it protected the house against 
the much feared attacks of thieves and maraud- 
ers acting under the guise of patriots. 

The Battle of Long Island in 1776 was the 
only engagement fought there. With the retreat 
across the East River the American Army dis- 
appeared from the island for the whole period of 
the war. Occasional raids were made from the 
Connecticut shore of the Sound but they amount- 
ed to very little, although great courage was 
displayed in their execution by the Americans. 
The best known among them is the attack of 
Colonel Meigs upon the magazine at Sag Har- 
bor, where large quantities of provisions and a 
number of vessels were destroyed, as well as 
ninety prisoners captured. Numerous attempts 
to destroy British forts and outposts served the 
purpose to detain a large force on the island 
for its protection and did good service by con- 
vincing the British general that he could not use 
the soldiers stationed on Long Island in the field. 

At the end of the war, the patriots returned 
to their homes in New York City and Long 
Island which had been occupied by the British, 
and where the loyalists had lived unmolested. 
They were very bitter and insisted that all loyal- 
ists must go in the same manner in which they 
had been driven from their homes. A general 
emigration to Canada set in. The so-called 
"Spring Fleet," which sailed in the spring of 1783 
for New Brunswick, carried one thousand emi- 
grants, mostly from Queens County. They found- 
ed the city of St. Johns and gave the city its 
first mayor, Gabriel G. Ludlow, whose farm lay 
partly in Hempstead and partly in Flushing. It 
was confiscated and sold to Captain Berrien and 
Isaac Ledyard for $800. After the Constitution 
of the United States had been adopted and the 
people quietly settled down to peaceful work, 
Queens County became as patriotic and intensely 
American as any other district in the United 
States. No trace of Toryism remained. This 
was shown during the War of 1812 when British 
ships hovered continually around the shores of 
Long Island. The people arose and enlisted in 
quickly formed regiments, erected fortifications 
at all points the enemy might attack, and kept 
constant watch. Fortunately, they were not ex- 
posed to actual hostilities with the exception of 



16 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



an attempt to attack Sag Harbor in June, 1813, 
which was quickly repulsed without loss of life. 

The even life and steady work for the devel- 
opment of the county went on uninterruptedly 
until the Civil War broke out. Queens took up 
her full share, sent thousands of her sons to the 
front and devoted her whole strength to the 
sacred work of saving the Union. 

The County of Queens had been erected in 




FULTON STREET, JAMAICA 

1683 when Yorkshire was divided into different 
counties. It remained, however, for a long time 
in some measure dependent upon New York. The 
prison and court-house erected at Jamaica in 
1669 was small and insufficient, and prisoners 
were frequently sent to New York. It appears 
that at times even the sessions of the Queens 
County Court were held in the neighboring city. 
The district attorney for the county came from 
New York as late as the beginning of the Nine- 
teenth Century, in spite of the fact that many 
able lawyers resided in Queens. In 1724 a new 
jail and court-house was erected at Jamaica but 
this also seems to have been rather small and in- 
secure, for the records tell of repeated escapes 
of prisoners. The building was destroyed during 
the Revolutionary War and a new one erected 
in 1785 near the south bounds of North Hemp- 
stead, this being the geographical center of the 
county. It took two years to finish this building, 
and the taxpayers complained bitterly of the de- 
lay. They evidently did not possess the patience 
with which their descendants treat the men who 
erect the public buildings of the present day. On 
February 8, 1787, the sheriff of Queens County 
petitioned the Legislature for an act to remove 
the Queens County prisoners from the jail in 
New York to the jail just completed in Queens. 
The first capital trial at the new court-house 
took place in 1790, when two negroes were sen- 
tenced to be hanged for arson. The prison was 
evidently not much safer than the former ones. 
In 1801 Walter Dunlevy, who had been sentenced 
to fourteen years' imprisonment for manslaugh- 
ter, was freed by two armed men who locked the 
under-sheriff in charge in his room and took the 



prisoner away. He was caught on a vessel bound 
for Europe and sent to the Bridewell at New 
York. With the growth of the population a 
new court-house became necessary and a suitable 
building was, after a great deal of wrangling 
over the site, erected at Long Island City. This 
time modern methods were employed, and it 
took five years to erect a building costing nearly 
$300,000. 

Queens has the distinction of being the cradle 
of horse-racing in America. Its conformation 
was peculiarly adapted to the laying out of race 
courses. In a book written in 1670 we find the 
following remarks : "Toward the middle of 
Long Island lyeth a plain sixteen miles long 
and four miles broad where you shall find neither 
sick nor stone to hinder the horses' heels, or 
endanger them in their races ; and once a year 
the best horses in the Island are brought hither to 
try their swiftness, and the swiftest rewarded 
with a silver cup, two being annually provided for 
that purpose." The first course was established 
on Salisbury Plains, near the present Hyde Park 
Station. In 1665 Governor Nicolls appointed a 
horse-race to take place in Hempstead "not so 
much for the divertisement of youth as for en- 
couraging the bettering of the breed of horses 
which through great neglect has been impaired." 
The New Market course was established in 1669, 
and at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century 
transferred to a large level plain east of the old 
court-house. About 1821 the Union course was 
established at the western border of Jamaica and 
meetings held in May and October. Here a club 
was formed and under its auspices racing took 
on modern forms. Aside from manj' smaller 
courses there were important tracks at Centre- 
ville, at Newton and around Beaver Pond in 
Jamaica. 

The continued increase of the population 
made the building of roads on Long Island a 
matter of prime necessity. A plank road through 
the center of the island from Brooklyn to East- 
hampton had been constructed in the early part 
of the Eighteenth Century, and the first post 
route had been established in 1764. The mail 
was carried on horseback once in two weeks, the 
mail rider going east along the North Shore and 
returning along the South Shore. From 1847 
to 1851 a mania for building roads swept over the 
island, but soon died out again because the rail- 
roads came and the people thought wagon roads 
of little importance. The development of Long 
Island might have been considerably accelerated 
if more good roads had been built, for it is uni- 
versally recognized at the present day that the 
railroads cannot fully replace them or make them 
unnecessary. Well constructed wagon roads are 
fully as important for an agricultural district as 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



19 



railroads. The first railroad was opened for 
travel on April 18, 1836, and connected Brooklyn 
with Jamaica. A year later the line to Hicks- 
ville was completed. In 1841 it was extended to 
Suffolk Station, and on the twenty-fifth of July, 
1844, the first train passed over the rails to 
Greenport, a distance of ninety-five miles. From 
Hicksville a branch was opened to Syosset in 
1854 and extended to Northport in 1868, while 
it reached Port Jefferson in P872. In the mean- 
time brapches had been built to Hempstead, Lo- 
cust Point and Far Rockaway. The Sag Har- 
bor road was constructed in 1869, the line from 
Hunters Point to Flushing in 1854. The roads 
on the south side were started in 1867, and later 
on A. T. Stewart built a line to Garden City. All 
the lines on Long Island were consolidated in 
the seventies by the Messrs. Poppenhusen, who 
spent much money for improvements ; but while 
the business increased rapidly and the whole 
island felt the effect of the new management, the 
outlay had been too large. The enterprise failed 
and the railroad, after being in the hands of a 
receiver for some time, was bought in by Bos- 
ton capitalists with Austin Corbin at their head. 
Some years ago, after Mr. Corbin's death, the 
Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the whole sys- 
tem, and is now engaged in connecting it with 
its main lines and the city of New York by a sys- 
tem of tunnels nearing completion. When the 
movement of substituting electricity for horse 
power on street railways began, the late William 
Steinway conceived the idea of consolidating and 
extending the lines in Queens County, and of con- 
necting them with New York City by means of 
a tunnel. His sudden death prevented the execu- 
tion of his plans at that time but the idea has 
been taken up and brought to a finish by the 
so-called Belmont syndicate, closely allied with 
the New York Interborough Company controlling 
the subways and the elevated railroads of Man- 
hattan and the Bronx. The day is indeed not 
far distant when Queens will be as near to the 
center of Manhattan as Brooklyn and the Bronx, 
and much nearer than Richmond. 

When the Greater City of New York was 
formed on. January i, 1898, Queens County was 
cut in two. The western part, including Long 
Island City, Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica and 
part of Hempstead, was incorporated in the city 
of New \''ork under the name of the Borough of 
Queens, while the eastern part was erected into a 
new county, Nassau. The existence of the Bor- 
ough of Queens therefore dates only from Janu- 
ary I, 1898. 

Long Island City is the largest and most im- 
portant settlement within the territory occupied 
by the Borough of Queens. The first settlers on 
its present site were Hendrick Hermensen, who 



took up a grant on an old Indian trail now known 
as the old Bowery Bay road; Richard Brutnall 
and Tyman Jansen, who settled on both sides of 
Dutch Kills Creek. The river front, embracing 
Hunters Point and Ravenswood, was first ac- 
quired by Everard Bogardus whose family later 
changed their name to Bogart. He was a min- 
ister of the Dutch Church and through this fact 
the land he occupied became known as "Domi- 
nie's Hook." Astoria was originally settled by an 
Englishman, William Hallett, and therefore 
known as Hallett's Cove. Here were the be- 
ginnings of Queens' industrial enterprises, for 
Hallett erected a lime-kiln, and Sunswick Creek, 
which connected with Dutch Kills, was a navi- 
gable stream, much used for the transportation 
of produce and other merchandise. As has al- 
ready been mentioned, the district was largely set- 
tled by Hollartders, and a great many families of 
substance were attracted by the natural beauty 
of the region, by the fertility of the soil and the 
opportunities for satisfying love of nature. 
Queens County became an important part of the 
state of New York and began to develop rapidly. 
One of the first and most important steps in 
the history of Long Island City was the passage 
of a bill by the Legislature to incorporate the 
village of Astoria in 1839. The village had at 
that time about two thousand inhabitants and 
only one street, with two turnpikes leading to 
Williamsburgh and to Flushing. It developed 
very slowly because for a long time the village 
government remained in the hands of the old and 




ST. Mary's roman catholic church, Jamaica 

conservative element that was opposed to the 
spending of money. Better times came, however, 
the j'ounger settlers secured an influence upon the 
management of the affairs, better connections 
with New York were established, the Astoria 
Gas Company was founded, new houses were 
built and streets laid out, and enterprising man- 
ufacturers found it wise and profitable to lo- 
cate within the boundaries of the new village. 
The northeastern part was developed by the 



20 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



Steinways, and is known to the present day 
under the name of Steinway. There they erected 
their factories and a little farther east they es- 
tablished the summer resort originally known as 
Bowery Bay Beach, and in later years as North 
Beach. With the growth of Astoria and of the 
settlements surrounding it, the advisability of 
uniting them all under one government became 
manifest. Their interests were the same, the 
improvements made in one district touched them 
all, but were in many cases of little value if not 
executed with a regard for the interests of the 
neighbors just across the line. In one word: a 
community of interests existed but was unable 
to reap any benefits because united action was 
impossible on account of a division of authority. 
The thought of consolidating all the different 



consolidation has after all greatly benefited the 
communities composing Long Island City. Since 
the establishment of Greater New York and 
the merging of Long Island City in the Borough 
of Queens, improvements have gone forward 
with greater speed and the district is rapidly 
increasing in population and importance. Aside 
from the tunnels already mentioned a bridge 
connecting Queens with Manhattan by way of 
Blackwells Island is rapidly nearing completion 
and will be open for traffic within a few years. 
Another bridge, to the Bronx, for railroad as 
well as passenger traffic, is planned, and there is 
little doubt that it will be constructed in the near 
future. 

The town of Flushing was fi;st settled by Hol- 
landers, as its name implies — which originally 




VERNON AVE.. LOXG ISLAND CITY, LOOKING TOWARD ST. MARYS CHLTRCH 



villages was not new ; it is said that as long ago 
as 1853 Captain Levy Hayden, superintendent of 
the Marine Railway formerly located at Hunters 
Point, had suggested that before many years the 
different communities would probably be united 
in a large city under the name of "Long Island 
City." However that was, the people began to 
think of the matter seriously right after the 
Civil War was ended. As always, a few years 
were passed in talking the matter over, but in 
1869 a meeting was held for the purpose of 
drafting a charter for the projected city, and it 
was decided to appeal to the Legislature to grant 
the charter. On May 4, 1870, Governor Hoffman 
signed the bill which incorporated the villages 
of Astoria, Ravenswood, Hunters Point, Dutch 
Kills, Blissville, Middletown and Bowery Bay 
in the new city of Long Island. The first elec- 
tion under the charter took place on July fifth of 
the same year, and Abram D. Ditmars of Astoria 
was elected the first mayor. It is true that the 
government of the new city has not always been 
what its best citizens desired it to be, but the 



was "Vlissingen," from the Dutch city of the 
same name. It appears that the first white men 
came there in 1643 or 1645. But when the town 
was established there were already several Eng- 
lishmen from Massachusetts present who had 
been persecuted by the Puritans on account of 
their religious belief. They did not find the tol- 
eration they . sought, for the Dutch were by no 
means as liberal as has been frequently stated. 
Still, the fugitives were not ill-treated; they 
were admitted without much opposition and giv- 
en the same rights as the Dutch settlers; neither 
were they persecuted or deprived of their lives 
and property because they worshiped in a different 
way. They must have gained much influence 
very quickly for when the town was incorporated 
almost all the signers of the charter bore Eng- 
lish names. Originally the charter gave to the 
incorporators of the town all the lands on both 
sides of Flushing Creek from the Sound to the 
ocean, but this was later on amended to read, 
"from the Sound to the hills," and this indefinite 
statement caused much trouble with the town of 




Id 
W 
P 

a 





< 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



23 



Jamaica to the south. However, Fkishing grew 
rather rapidly, and the assumption seems justi- 
fied that the settlers were of a somewhat su- 
perior kind, with more enterprise and energy 
than were found in the surrounding towns. A 
very valuable element of the population consisted 
of the many French Huguenot families which 
settled in Flushing when they were driven from 
France. They were as a rule well educated, many 
of them being descendants of the nobility, the 
whole average of their accomplishments being 
decidedly superior to those of the other settlers. 
These Huguenots brought to America a knowl- 
edge of horticulture, which at that time was quite 
absent in the colonies. They laid the foundation 
of a great industry that gave considerable im- 
portance to Queens, for they started the nur- 
series which in 1789 were already so extensive 
that General Washington found it worth his 
while to make a special trip to Long Island to 
inspect them. The French introduced first the 
fruits of their native country, and their success 
led the English gardeners to imitate them and to 
extend their experiments. At one time a large 
part of Queens was given over to the propaga- 
tion of forest trees but the increase in the value 
of the land and the development of the business 
of raising trees in the western part of the state 
has led the nurserymen of Flushing to abandon 
this part of their business and to devote them- 
selves to the raising of ornamental shrubbery, 
plants and cut flowers. Flushing is still one of 
the most substantial districts of Queens, con- 
taining the descendants of many old families, and 
its population is, if the term may be used in this 
country, somewhat aristocratic. It is, at the same 
time, thoroughly modern in its views, energetic 
and ambitious, and its high aims are best proven 
by the superior schools it maintains. 

Whitestone was settled very early, probably 
shortly before Flushing, but its development dates 
from comparatively recent times. In 1800 there 
were but twelve houses within a radius of a mile. 
When, in 1853, a large factory was established 
for manufacturing tin, copper and japan ware, 
the village grew rapidly until it had acquired 
considerable importance. 

The case of College Point is similar. The land 
on which it stands formed originally the estate 
of William Lawrence. After the Revolution it 
was purchased by Eliphalet Stratton, who opened 
it for settlement. But the village grew slowly. 
In 1846 Dr. Muhlenberg erected St. Paul's Col- 
lege for the education of young men for the min- 
istry of the Episcopal Church. He had to build 
a plank walk across the meadows to Flushing at 
his own expense, and the two villages had to wait 
until iBss before a causeway was constructed 
connecting them. Dr. Muhlenberg died before 



his enterprise was fairly established, and it was 
given up. College Point, like Whitestone, began 
to grow when Conrad Poppenhusen in 1854 erect- 
ed a large factory for making hard rubber goods 
Many other enterprises followed and the villagt 
was soon a bustling industrial center. The popu- 
lation increased rapidly, and the already fine 
residential section became larger and more im- 
portant. A considerable -proportion of the in- 
habitants, working men as well as merchants and 
manufacturers, were Germans, and College Point 
for a long time had the reputation of being 
more German than any other village on Long 
Island. Here, as in Flushing, much interest was 
taken in educational matters, and the schools of 
the village reached a high grade of excellence. 

Bayside was founded very soon after Flushing. 
Here the Indians lived on friendly terms with 
the whites until the Dutch government ordered 
their disarmament, when they drifted to the 
southern shore of the island. One of the fore- 
most settlers of the early times was Dr. John 
Rodman, an eminent Quaker and physician. He 
resided at Bayside for upward of forty years 
and died there in 1731. His descendants lived 
in the village until long after Revolutionary 
times. At that time already many of the. resi- 
dents were New York business men. 

The district around Little Neck Bay is one of 
the most interesting localities of the borough 
from an archeological point of view. The vast 
quantities of oysters and clams found here made 
it a favorite spot for the Indians, and much of 
the wampum that was used by the Five Nations 
was made here. The part now known as Doug- 
laston was first settled at the end of the Sev- 
enteenth Century by Thomas Hicks, who, assisted 
by a party of followers from the mainland, drove 
off the Indians by force. This is probably the 
only instance of similar injustice and brutality 
in the history of Queens County. Little Neck 
Bay was for a long time celebrated for. the qual- 
ity and the yield of its oyster beds, but the in- 
dustry has of late declined. 

The neck of land extending into the Sound east 
of Whitestone was for many years an unimport- 
ant farming district named after the family 
which owned it, Willett's Point. When the Civil 
War broke out, a speculator who thought the 
location of strategic importance, bought the land, 
and soon resold it to the United States Govern- 
ment, which commenced to erect a large fortress 
constructed of masonry. While the work was go- 
ing on, a Maine regiment was quartered there and 
part of the grounds was used for a hospital. The 
fortifications were never completed because the 
revolution in modern warfare brought about by 
the introduction of iron-clad vessels, rifled can- 
nons and torpedoes, made stone walls useless. 



24 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



for they were easily destroyed by the new weap- 
ons. Instead of the fort, the Government es- 
tablished at Willett's Point a headquarters for a 
general system of coast and harbor defenses by 
forming a permanent camp and school for the 
Engineer Corps of the Army. 

The town of Jamaica was settled by a few 
families coming from Hempstead in 1664. They 
were all English and probably came from New 
England. They bought their land from the In- 
dians, from whom also the name of the town is 
derived. It was originally spelled in different 




ST. MARY S CHURCH, LONG ISLAND CITY 

ways, Jameco, Jemeco and Yemacah. The pre- 
sumption is that it was the name of some Indian 
family. The town was granted a charter by 
Governor Stuyvesant in 1656 and maintained 
practically an independent position, ruling itself 
without much regard for the Dutch government. 
It is quite evident that for some reason not known 
to us Stuyvesant could not interfere, but he had 
an opportunity to show his dislike of the ex- 
isting conditions when he granted a more ample 
charter in 1660, by decreeing that the town 
should henceforth be called Rusdorp. Whether 
this new designation was generally accepted we 
do not know, but it certainly disappeared after 
a few years. Jamaica grew rather more rapidly 
than other towns and the records that are pre- 
served show constant purchases of land from 
the Indians because new settlers arrived who 
were an.xious to join the colonies. It may be 
mentioned here that nobody was permitted to 
settle within the boundaries of the town without 
permission. In 1659 one Benjamin Hubbard 
had purchased a house lot without the knowledge 
or approbation of the town. He was therefore 
compelled to give a bond for good behavior as the 
condition on which he might continue to live on 
the land he had bought. The value of the fish- 
eries in Jamaica Bay was recognized early, and 



in the middle of the Eighteenth Century the town 
had already commissioners who relentlessly pros- 
ecuted every outsider who fished in the waters 
over which they had jurisdiction, without per- 
mission. 

Jamaica Village received its first charter in 
1814 and a more extended one in 1855. It was 
for a long time the county seat of Queens Coun- 
ty. We have seen that for nearly two centuries 
the sessions of the County Court were held here 
and that the jail was also at Jamaica. The set- 
tlement must have gained importance very early, 
for the General Assembly or Legislature of the 
Province of New York sat twice in Jamaica, in 
1702 and again in 1753. Washington visited the 
place on April 20, 1790, and lodged in William 
Warner's Inn, which he called "a pretty good 
and decent place." A town hall was erected in 
1858, and a new and larger one in 1870. Jamaica 
enjoys especially good facilities of transportation, 
and has for this reason grown more rapidly than 
many other communities since consolidation and 
the large increase of the rental value of real 
property in Manhattan, which have induced a 
large part of the population to seek homes in the 
adjoining districts. 

The original settler of Newtown was the Rev. 
Francis Doughty. He had left England because 
he hoped that he would be permitted to worship 
according to the dictates of his conscience. But 
after he had settled in Taunton, Mass., he found 
that he had been mistaken. There was another 
form of worship established in New England, but 
it was as intolerant of those who believed dif- 
ferently as that in the old country. So the Rev- 
erend Doughty took his wife and children and 
came to New Amsterdam, where he applied to 
the authorities for a grant for the land that was 
known as Mespat. He was granted patents for 
a tract comprising over fourteen thousand acres 
and including practically all of the present Long 
Island City and Newtown. It is true that at 
that time a large part of the land was swamp and 
bog, but improved methods in farming and sub- 
soil drainage have made it very valuable. The 
Newtown bogs were of considerable importance 
for the New Yorkers, for the peat taken from 
them was extensively used as fuel. The pro.x- 
imity of the town to New York City has al- 
ways acted favorably upon its prosperity, and a 
large share of the attention of the farmers has 
been devoted to the raising of vegetables for the 
city market. Newtown has indeed been in many 
ways of great importance to the metropolis. 

When Doughty arrived he found only two or 
three settlers, but quickly succeeded in attracting 
others. Mespat grew in importance and riches 
until the Indian wars broke out and the Indians 
completely destroyed the flourishing settlement. 




SCENE ON RIVER FRONT, LONG ISLAND CITY 




THE OLD WOOLSEY MANOR HOUSE, ERECTED ABOUT 1726 




LONG ISLAND RAILROAD STATION AND FERRY SLIPS 



■- -^ 



c,>">v 






II.IXTUX A\ENUE. JAMAICA, LOOKING SOUTH 




PARK AT CORONA 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



27 



It was rebuilt after peace had been declared, but 
never fully recovered from the consequences of 
the disaster. Doughty soon became involved in 
trouble with the other settlers because he in- 
sisted upon his rights as the real owner of all the 
land under his patents. He brought suit and the 
courts decided against him. Thereupon he ap- 
pealed, and brought the wrath of Governor Kieft 
upon himself because Kieft had cut off the right 
of appeal to the courts of Holland. The Gover- 
nor told the clergyman that ' his decision was 
final and absolute and punished him with a fine 
of ten dollars and twenty-four hours' imprison- 
ment. Doughty was disgusted and accepted a call 
from the people of Flushing. 

About midway between Mespat and Flushing a 
village was founded in 1652 by a number of 
Englishmen from Connecticut and Massachusetts. 
They built a Igroup of cottages in the neighbor- 
hood where the Presbyterian Church of New- 
town now stands. The new settlement was called 
Middleburg after the town in the Dutch province 
of Zealand where so many of the Puritans had 
found an asylum after having been driven from 
England, Middleburg received a charter similar 
to the one Mespat had been given. The large 
district between this new village and the East 
River was mainly occupied by farmers, mostly 
Hollanders who had received their land from the 
governor of New Amsterdam. They did not 
form a corporate commimity but continued for 
many years to be dependent upon either Flush- 
ing or New Amsterdam. 

Being an English community, Middleburg suf- 
fered more from the troubles between the English 
and the Dutch than other settlements. In 1662 
word was sent from Connecticut that the whole 
of Long Island was annexed to the other side 
of the Sound. This was exactly what the in- 
habitants who hated the tyranny of the Dutch 
desired, but they did not dare to acknowledge 
their allegiance to the English crown openly. They 
considered themselves as belonging to Connecti- 
cut but continued to send commissioners to New 
Amsterdam to fix the tithes. After a while they 
grew bolder and declared openly that they con- 
sidered themselves English subjects. At the 
same time, and to emphasize their resolution, they 
changed the name of the village to Hastings. 
They must have been of a very independent way 
of thinking for they soon went farther and took 
steps to cut loose from Connecticut as well as 
from New York. They did not succeed in this, 
but accomplished another aim they had long had 
in mind. In 1665 they persuaded the convention 
assembled to pass new laws to add the outlying 
plantations, the Poor Bowery, Hell Gate Neck 
and other territory, to Hastings. The township 
as thus constituted received the name of the new 



town, which remained until the annexation to 
Long Island City and is still used to designate 
the locality. The town grew very rapidly in com- 
parison to others, and in 1723 all the land had 
been taken up. The inhabitants devoted them- 
selves almost entirely to agriculture, and con- 
siderable quantities of fruit and vegetables were 
raised which even in those early times were taken 
to the growing city across the East River. Much 
land was left for pasture whereon horses, cattle 
and sheep were raised, mostly from stock brought 
from Holland and England. 

With the growth of the city of New York as 
an industrial, commercial and financial center the 
importance of Newtown increased rapidly. The 
location was especially favorable as ocean going 
vessels could be brought into the creek and either 
be loaded with the goods manufactured there, or 
discharge the cargoes they had brought from all 
parts of the country and from foreign lands. Ex- 
tensive lumber yards were the first enterprises 
to locate there but many other establishments fol- 
lowe.d, and some of the largest industrial concerns 
selected the banks of Newtown Creek for their 
factories. The farmers withdrew from the shore 
of the East River and the banks of the creek and 
moved farther inland, while commerce took pos- 
session of the acres they had abandoned. What 
would be the thoughts of the Reverend Doughty 
who relinquished an empire for a pastorate at 
Flushing with an annual salary of six hundred 
guilders, if he could see the changes that have 
taken place and in less than two hundred and 




KISSENA LAKE, FLUSHING 

fifty years transformed a wilderness, inhabited 
by savages and haunted by ferocious animals, in- 
to a hive of industry ! But it is not given to 
man to look far into the future. Fortunatel}', we 
may say, for if the first settlers could have known 
the future value of their holdings they would 
have kept them, and distribution, diversification 
of human activity and other changes, which un- 
derlie all progress, would not have taken place 
so rapidly. 

The Borough of Queens now forms, since 1897, 



28 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



a part of the great city of New York. It had 
arrived at a point where further progress seemed 
in danger because the growth and development 
were so rapid that the means for furnishing the 
improvements demanded by an urban population 
could not be readily furnished by the inhabitants 
who still lived in comparatively scattered com- 
munities. Small cities had indeed sprung up in 
many parts of the territory but they were still 
separated by long stretches of vast land with in- 
sufficient facilities for transportation. New York- 
ers who looked for homes surrounded by pure 
air, and who wanted to fiee from the tenement 
districts desired good streets with sewers and 
other improvements to which they were used. To 
provide all this quickly was beyond the means of 
the still sparsely settled communities, and consol- 
idation proved as much a boon to Queens as to 
other boroughs. Since it was accoinplished, the 
borough has progressed in every respect, and 
bids fair to become one of the most valuable 



parts of the immense city on the shores of the 
Hudson, the East River and the bay. Its popu- 
lation is rapidly increasing and the time is not 
far distant when its vast territory will be cov- 
ered b}' factories and industrial establishments 
in the parts adjacent to the shore line, and by 
dwellings wherever there is room for them. The 
work on the tunnels and bridges which will pro- 
vide quick and convenient communication with 
Manhattan is nearing completion and this will 
work wonders in the development of this bor- 
ough, which, much too long, has been cut off from 
the heart of the city by natural obstacles. It is 
strange that a territory of so many advantages 
and after all so near has been so sadly neglected 
in this respect, but the assurance of a glorious 
future may help us to forget the past with its 
disappointments and often aroused but almost 
always destroyed hopes. The new Queens bids 
fair to see a growth that is unparalleled in the 
historj' of this and other cities. 




SWITCHBACK E. R., ROCKAWAY BEACH 




FLUSHING CHURCHES, ETC. 



1 ST. MICHAEL S 

2 FIRST BAPTIST 

3 ST. George's 

4 REFORMED CHURCH 

5 FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE FOUNDED it 

6 CONGREGATIONAL 

7 MURRAY HILL R.R. STATION 

8 METHODIST EPISCOPAL 




ELMHURST, L.I„ CHURCHES 

1 BAPTIST CHURCH, THIRD AND WHITNEY AVE. 

2 DUTCH REFORMED • 

3 MBTHOniST EPISCOPAL 

4 BOULEVARD PRESBYTERIAN 

5 ST. JAMES. FOUNDED IN 1704 



QUEENS BOROUGH OF THE PRESENT DAY 

PART II 




HE vast territory now cov- 
ered by the Borough of 
Queens still contains room 
for man}' thousands of homes. 
It might justly be called a 
borough of magnificent dis- 
tances, and of widely differing 
natural conditions. Indeed, there may be found 
here almost any kind of surroundings man might 
wish for : the seashore, level plains, woodland, 
hills, and valleys. The settlements are slow to 
take on an urban character, and it is to be hoped 
in the interest of future generations that they 
will never do so. There are indeed districts of 
considerable magnitude that are entirely given 
over to industrial establishments, but they form, 
after all, only a relatively small part of the por- 
tion which has been built up. This refers, of 
course, primarily to localities where factories 
have been erected in such close proximity that 
there is practicall}' no room left for dwellings, or 
where their business is of such a character that 
the neighborhood becomes unfit for residential 
purposes. Of factories or workshops which can 
be kept running almost night and day without 
interfering in the slightest degree with the com- 
fort of the residents in the near vicinity, and 
which are distributed all over the borough, there 
are many, but they do not destro3', as a rule, 
the natural beauty of their surroundings, and are 
even, in many cases, constructed in such a way 
that they harmonize, as far as this is possible, 
with the appearance of the residential districts 
in which they are located. 

The casual visitor who has neither time nor in- 
clination to examine into the conditions lying 
beneath the surface, and who goes to the Bor- 
ough of Queens with the sole intention to trans- 
act his business as quickly as possible, is nat- 
urally not in a position to form a correct judg- 
ment. As a rule, he sees only the business dis- 
trict, in most cases that part of the borough where 
most of the factories are located. Such a con- 
glomeration of buildings entirel}' devoted to busi- 
ness of one kind or another is never and nowhere 
very attractive. Factories are erected where 
land is cheap because it is not fit for residences 
of the better kind. If the business carried on is 
of such a nature that it interferes with the com- 
fort of those living in the vicinity, as is the case 



with many factories of chemicals, oils, etc., the 
owner is especially anxious to locate where there 
is small danger that he will be troubled by com- 
plaints from neighbors who may appeal to the 
authorities to stop what may appear to them ob- 
noxious and a public nuisance. Again, factories 
turning out large quantities of goods in the price 
of which the cost of transportation forms an im- 
portant item must be located near a railroad or 
within convenient distance of the shore. All 
these factors combine to make a district where 
factories, railroad yards, docks and similar es- 
tablishments are close together far from attract- 
ive. It is therefore not surprising that people 
who visit Queens with the sole object to trans- 
act business, who never get beyond the compara- 
tively small circle within which the manufactur- 
ing activity is carried on, and who consequently 
see only the part of the borough devoted entirely 
to utilitarian purposes with no attempt at beauti- 
fying the surroundings, are disappointed and even 
disgusted. They shorten their stay as much as 
possible and go away with the impression that 
the borough is not a fit place to live in. Of 
course they are wrong, because their judgment is 
not based on a knowledge of conditions prevailing 
but upon a superficial impression produced by a 
casual glance at one edge of the subject they 
talk about without being familiar with it. But in- 
formation derived in this way, and spread and 
disseminated by people who never take the trouble 
to verify the first and incomplete information, is 
readily absorbed by others of a similar bend of 
mind, who, unfortunately, form a majority, while 
those who withhold judgment until they have 
been able to make a full and exhaustive study of 
conditions are very scarce indeed. While we 
must deeply regret that the impression has gained 
ground and is held by many, that Queens is a 
borough filled with noisy and noisome factories, 
where people live only because they have no 
choice, it is human and to some extent excus- 
able, and all we can do is to rise up against it 
and fight it wherever it shows until the truth 
is known to all. 

It has been the misfortune of Queens that its 
face, so to speak, was turned away from the more 
rapidly growing boroughs of Manhattan and 
Brooklyn. If we use a little imagination and 
compare the Borough of Queens with a large 



31 



32 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



estate, we find that its beautiful front faces the 
Sound, while its back yard, with the shops and 
the outhouses, is plainly visible from the oppo- 
site shore of the East River. In addition we see 
that every traveler coming to Queens has to pass 
through the back yard, and that therefore his 
first impression is distinctly unfavorable. This 
is a decided hindrance to the development of the 
borough. The untold thousands who travel every 
year to and from the places of amusement on the 
shore of the Atlantic Ocean, or to and from the 
large race-tracks, ride along the anything but 
beautiful banks of Newtown Creek, and gain 
from them their impression of what the borough 
is. This is the first impression, and therefore 
the strongest, and it is difficult to dispel it, for the 
majority of people stick to a conviction once 
formed, and are loath to change it, even in the 
face of powerful arguments. Nobody likes to 
admit that he was wrong or mistaken in his judg- 
ment ; it is rather human to defend a position 
once taken even after one has begun to doubt 
its correctness. And it is no exaggeration to 
state that perhaps ninety per cent of all the peo- 
ple passing through Queens Borough know noth- 
ing of it except that it contains dismal swamps, 
.ailroad yards and factories distributing evil 
smells and ugly to the last degree. This condition 
will change appreciably as soon as the Blackwells 
Island Bridge has been completed because then 
the traveler who is not obliged to stop near the 
river front will reach terra firma amid more at- 
tractive surroundings. The same holds true of the 
tunnels now being constructed. With improved 
facilities for reaching the heart of the boroUf-Ji 
the manufacturing district and all the unavoid- 
able eyesores connected with industrial activity 
on a large scale will be hidden to the sight of 
the traveler who does not want to see them. To 
again use the simile we have employed before : it 
will no longer be necessary, in order to reach the 
real Borough of Queens, to pass through its 
back yard in full sight of what should be hidden 
as much as is feasible, for the visitor will in 
future travel over or under the district forming it. 
Queens Borough possesses an advantage that 
can hardly be overestimated in the variation of its 
coast line. For a considerable distance from New- 
town Creek, which forms part of the western 
boundary line, the East River affords easy ac- 
cess to seagoing vessels, and since the obstruc- 
tions formed by Hell Gate have been removed, 
the fair way extends all along the Long Island 
shore. This was naturally the district where fac- 
tories sprang up, and the deep channel of New- 
town Creek was utilized to its fullest extent. The 
creek itself was of decided value for the develop- 
ment of the industrial activity, but was also, as 
has been pointed out, to some extent a detri- 



ment to the growth of the borough in other di- 
rections. Its stagnant waters, only slightly in- 
fluenced by the tides, and never cleared com- 
pletely of the waste matter deposited in them, 
became polluted to a degree that was both dis- 
agreeable and dangerous to health and life. For 
a long time the idea was agitated to connect it 
Ijy means of a cut or canal with Flushing Bay, 
but the project seems to have been abandoned. It 
is true that in this way the tide would have had 
a fuller sway, the waters of the East River and 
the Long Island Sound being able to enter at 
both ends, thus renewing and cleaning the creek 
or canal regularly, and it is also possible that by 
means of the cut some of the swamps and 
marshes on the shore of the Sound could have 
been drained easily, but there were weighty rea- 
sons against the undertaking. Aside from the 
great cost, it was at least doubtful whether the 
tide would have been strong enough to keep the 
water in the canal clean, and there was conse- 
quently great danger that the evil conditions ex- 
isting along the line of Newtown Creek would be 
extended through the very heart of the borough 
to the shore of Flushing Bay. With better regu- 
lation and more active supervision on the part 
of the authorities, combined with stricter en- 
forcement of the law, the sanitary conditions have 
been greatly improved, and while they are still 
far from perfect, they are no longei: almost un- 
bearable as was the case years ago. Improve- 
ments of this kind cannot be completed in a day, 
it takes many years to bring them about. There 
is no question that the low lands in that district 
will in time be filled in, that the swamps, which 
are both ugly and unhealthy, will be drained, and 
that the creek itself will be regulated until ob- 
jection can no longer be raised. It will be a 
difficult work, but as the word impossibility has 
practically disappeared from the language of the 
modern engineer, it will undoubtedly be done. 

The shore along the East River eastward from 
Pot Cove and especially along the Sound is dif- 
ferent in character. For the most part it does 
not form a straight line but is broken by many 
bays and coves 'which lend infinite variety to the 
landscape and greatly enhance its beauty. Mostly, 
too, the water is shallow and the land cannot be 
approached by deepgoing vessels. In some lo- 
calities it will, no doubt, be used for commercial 
purposes in time, but the fact that long and ex- 
pensive piers will have to be constructed and 
that a great deal of dredging has to be done, 
justifies the belief that this part of the shore will 
be reserved for residential purposes until at least 
another generation has passed away. It would 
indeed be a pity to spoil it because nature her- 
self seems to have intended it for the sojourn 
of human beings who love her beauties and who 




1 RESIDENCE OF F. N. LAWRENCE, BAYSIDE 

2 BOWNE PARK WHEN DEVELOPiMENT WAS COMMENCED 

3 RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM T. WILCOX, PARSOJIS AVE. 

4 GOLF LINKS, FLUSHING COUNTRY CLUB. 

5 SANFORD AVE. LOOKING EAST FROM LAWRENCE ST. 

6 WILLET's POINT ROAD AT BAYSIDE 




FLUSHING HOMES 

1. RESIDENCE OF FREDERICK STORM, BAYSIDE 

2. KNAUFF HOUSE ON PARSONS AVE. 

3. RESIDENCE OF JAMES A. MACDONALD, JAMAICA AVE. 

4. RESIDENCE OF F. R. BOWNE, SANFORD AVE. 

5. RESIDENCE OF D. L. VAN NOSTRAND, BROADWAY 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



35 



find the welcome and needed rest after arduous 
work by feasting their eyes on the placid waters 
of Long Island Sound,- framed in wooded hills 
and covered with white sails and majestic steam- 
boats gliding peacefully over the surface. With 
the bright lights of the settlements on the New 
York and, a little farther away, the Connecti- 
cut shore, the picture is indeed one to charm the 
heart and mind of anybody able to lay aside the 
cares of material welfare for a moment. The 
value of this shore has been recognized, and a 
broad boulevard is planned to run all the waj 
from Astoria to Sanfords Point. This road will 
be, when completed, one of the finest driveways 
in the world, and will at the same time afford 
pleasure and relaxation to the multitude. 

At the other, the southern, end, the borough 
reaches clear to the Atlantic Ocean. Jamaica 
Bay, with its marshy borders, intervenes, and 
waits for the inevitable effort to reclaim the low 
lands surrounding it. The bay itself is shallow 
and filled with hassocks or bars which are swept 
by the tides. They are of little value and serve 
mainly as places where fishermen may start from 
to pursue their sport. Still, the large body of 
water known as Jamaica Bay, and connected 
with the ocean by narrow channels or inlets, is of 
great value to the borough. Its present condi- 
tion, and especially that of its inland shore, is 
not yet what it ought to be, but when the needed 
improvements have once been completed, it will 
be the largest body of water within the limits 
of a city. Like many other American cities. New 
York has grown so rapidly that neither the time 
nor the means could be procured to execute all 
the improvements which are desirable ; on the 
contrary, it was imperative to limit expenditures 
to the actual necessities, and we know that even 
these cannot always be provided as quickly as 
should be the case. The time will come when 
the salt-water meadows on the shore of Jamaica 
Bay will be filled in, when the deep channels will 
be dredged, the low or sunken islands provided 
with embankments, securing them against the 
tides, and when the whole bay will be surrounded 
by buildings or parks. The city of New York 
will then boast of the possession of an inland sea 
and a district that in natural beauty will rival the 
Queen of the Adriatic of old, the proud Venice. 
This is no idle dream, for the reclamation of the 
lands in and around Jamaica Bay will be a paying 
venture at a not far distant day, and for this 
reason alone it will surely be undertaken. 

Jamaica Bay is separated from the ocean by a 
narrow strip of land, part of that long bar that 
stretches along almost the whole southern coast 
of Long Island. This has become a pleasure- 
ground for the millions who are anxious to es- 
cape the stifling heat of the built-up sections of 



the great city. At first inhabited by a few fish- 
ermen only, this strip of sand was visited by many 
thousands for a day's outing as soon as the con- 
struction of a railroad had placed it within con- 
venient reach of the city. Permanent settlers fol- 
lowed, cottages and hotels were erected, and it 
was not long until regular summer colonies of 
considerable size grew up. They began to cover 
more and more space, while the buildings became 
more substantial every year until the permanent 
population which remained all the year around 
numbered many thousands. Rockaway, Seaside, 
Arverne, Edgemere, Far Rockaway and other 
settlements have grown into regular small cities 
from places where not so many years ago re- 
freshments were sold in a rather primitive way 
to the multitudes who found their way there by 
railroad or by boat from Canarsie across Ja- 
maica Bay, or direct from New York. The rough- 




STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, JAMAICA 

and-ready character of the place has disappeared, 
and the district is as well built up and regulated, 
and as substantial, as many others which were 
founded with much greater pretensions. Of 
late the available space has been taken up by 
campers who spend the hot period of the year 
under tents or lightly constructed shacks, and se- 
cure in this way all the benefits the glorious air 
and the sea provide at a very small outlay. 

The surface of the borough is not as varied as 
its coast line. It has been stated that nothing but 
a few hilltops would remain visible if Long Island 
should sink two hundred feet, while on the other 
hand the Sound and the East River would dis- 
appear and New York would become an inland 
city, the Hudson River reaching the ocean many 
miles beyond Sandy Hook, if the whole territory 
around the metropolis would be raised two hun- 
dred feet. If the first mentioned change should 
take pla-t-e, hardly a trace of Queens Borough 
would remain above the water. The hills which 
relieve the plains are in some places quite pic- 
turesque and furnish variety ; they also permit the 
ever-watchful seller of homesteads to give nicely 
sounding names to the tracts he subdivides for 



36 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



settlement, but they are not very high. While 
we are anxious to bring out all the good points 
of the borough, we do not intend to claim any- 
thing that cannot bear investigation, and it pos- 
sesses so many charms that it is not necessary to 
add others the presence of which might be 
doubted. 

Here are, indeed, still found the charms of true 
rural life with all the advantages the near neigh- 
borhood of a big city can supply. We find mead- 
ows and fields, copses and stretches of woodland, 
brooks and ponds in abundance. The noise of 
the bustling city cannot be heard but an occa- 
sional shriek of the locomotive or the buzzing 
of the electric car as it dashes past on the high- 
way reminds us that we are not in a distant soli- 
tude but only very little removed from the ac- 
tivities of modern life at its highest tension. The 
fact is that Queens offers something to every- 
body, to the seeker for rest as well as to those 
who desire entertainment and even excitement. 
He who looks for these latter can secure them 
in a mild form in the settlements within the bor- 
ough or, if he wants more of them, in the city 
across the East River. But wherever he lives 
and whatever his desires are, he can at all times, 
without preparation and without going beyond call 
from his hearthstone, enjoy the charms of nature 
as well as those of city life, and he will even 
within the confines of his home feel the influ- 
ences of both. 

At the present moment Queens is, of course, 
to some extent, in an unsettled condition. Where 
farms are changed into home sites, gardens into 
building lots, and old pathways into paved streets 
with gutters, sewers and conduits for electric 
wires or gas-pipes, an upheaval always takes 
place which leaves huge scars upon the landscape. 
The transition of a rural district into a citified 
settlement cannot be completed without a period 
of ugliness, and even destruction of many beau- 
tiful things. This is unavoidable, but we know 
that it is always followed by marked improvement 
and a still more beautiful future. The same con- 
ditions will prevail in Queens. Where there are 
now ugly embankments, looking for all the world 
like the trails of an army of sand-carts, broad 
avenues will be constructed, lined on both sides 
with imposing structures housing the many who 
cannot find room in the city which has finally 
swallowed the region where not so long ago the 
farmer, the gardener, and even the woodsman 
reigned supreme. But the expanse is so vast 
that another generation at least will pass before 



Queens has lost its principal charm, its truly ru- 
ral aspect as far as a large part of its territory 
is concerned. And it will never lose this en- 
tirely, because its shore line is of such a nature 
that it lends itself freely to every attempt of beau- 
tifying the city. There will always be plenty of 
variety, and, from the very nature of things, the 
borough will never be changed into a mere ag- 
glomeration of immense structures of stone and 
iron, truly majestic in its grandeur, but withal 
somber and monotonous, sometimes even forbid- 
ding. To some extent Queens, or at least a 
considerable portion of it, will remain a suburb 
of the more densely populated boroughs, a suburb 
in the best sense of the word, part and parcel 
of the city and as important as the other dis- 
tricts but just a trifle more charming, a little 
quieter and certainly more agreeable to every- 
body who does not set utility above everything 
else. All this will come about when the bor- 
ough is brought nearer to the center of the city 
by improved transit facilities. We must ever 
come back to this important question, for upon 
its solution depends the present and the future 
development of this large and important part 
of the municipality. As soon as new bridges 
span the East River and tunnels are bored under 
the bed of the mighty body of water, the resi- 
dents of Queens will no longer ask themselves 
what route of transportation offers the least 
chances of a journey being protracted bej'ond all 
reason, they will no longer hesitate to undertake 
a trip to the business district because this takes 
up more time and causes more discomfort than 
one to a city one hundred and more miles distant, 
but they will be whisked in any direction as 
quickly as human ingenuity can provide. Then, 
and not until then, will Queens take the place it 
deserves among the different boroughs of the city, 
and the present generation can indeed congratu- 
late itself that it is destined to see these works 
completed and the last link in the chain forged 
that will surround Manhattan, Brooklyn, the 
Bronx and Queens, and that will forever remove 
the wall which nature had erected between Long 
Island and Manhattan Island. Then will we see 
again how the human mind and human strength 
can overcome and conquer the brute forces of 
nature, and then we may once more triumphantly 
point to American enterprise, ingenuity and 
achievement, which ever find new means of pro- 
viding for the countless multitudes that throng 
the shores of the richest country on the face of 
the earth. 




1 FLUSHING CREEK BELOW THE BRIDGE 

2 BATHING SCENE AT COLLEGE POINT 

3 KISSENA LAKE IN KISSENA PARK 

4 CROCHERON's HOTEL (BURNED IN I9O7) ONCE BOS S TWEED'S HEADQUARTERS 

5 FLUSHING BOAT CLUB AT POINT RUTH 




ELMHURST, L.I., STREET VIEWS 



1 EIGHTH STREET AND WHITNEY AVE. 

2 NORTH TERRACE 

3 NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL 

4 POLICE STATION AND COURT HOUSE 

5 SHELL ROAD AND THIRD STREET 



6 CARNEGIE LIBRARY 

7 PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 8o, BLISSVILLE 

8 BROADWAY 

9 HOFFMAN BOULEVARD 

10 DEWITT CLINTON MANSION 



NOTEWORTHY BUILDINGS AND PLACES 



PART III 




T is worth our while to look a 
little closer at the attractions 
Queens Borough has to show 
both as regards its natural ad- 
vantages and those created by 
I mortal man. To enumerate 
: them dryly and in regular 
order would indeed present the facts as 
they are, but in a very cold way and with- 
out producing the right impression. For an 
array of figures or facts may indeed stagger the 
human mind and compel the admission that 
something truly great and imposing is being 
shown, but it will not impress itself in such a 
way that the real meaning of such facts and fig- 
ures is comprehended. The man who has never 
seen a larger sum than one hundred dollars and 
has all his life been compelled to count his single 
dollars cannot comprehend what the possession of 
a million means. When we read in the reports of 
the Census Bureau that one state alone produces 
ten millions of chickens annually, we stand in 
awe before this enormous total, but we cannot 
form a conception of what it really means. Even 
if all these animals were driven past us, we could 
not bring our mind to form an accurate esti- 
mate of the whole number taken as one solid 
mass. Beyond certain figures or limits which 
we can readily see and measure, according to 
what we are accustomed to deal with or have 
learned to handle, our imagination refuses to 
work. If we were desirous of forming a cor- 
rect conception of what the figures given in the 
case in question really mean, we would have to 
visit that state and go from farm to farm, from 
city to city, and from one shipping point of 
poultry to another in order to see all the phases 
of the industry of raising chickens. We would 
then know what it means when we hear that a 
state raises so and so many millions of chickens, 
but the mere figures would even then remain 
meaningless to us. In the same way, if we 
would mention all the beautiful and important 
buildings in Queens, we would, at the end of 
the recital, know little more than that there are 
fine buildings there. But if we contemplate all 
the beautiful spots in the borough, whether struc- 
tures raised by human hands or scenes provided 
with lavish hands by nature, we will be impressed 
with the fact that there is much to see of many 



different kinds, and it will be much easier for 
us to appreciate fully what there is worthy of it. 
We will for this reason select the objects that 
should be pointed out and remembered, at ran- 
dom and without any special system that would 
only be a hindrance to the full and unfettered 
sweep of the imagination. 

We begin, of course, with the most important 
building in Queens Borough, inasmuch as within 
its walls a large part of the official life of the 
municipality centers. It is the Queens County 
Court-house, and was finished in 1874 before 
anybody thought of consolidation. A large and 
imposing structure in the style of the French 
Renaissance with a high mansard roof and tower, 
it is visible from a long distance, standing as it 
does on elevated ground. For a long time the 
surroundings were neglected, the growth of the 
borough not progressing as rapidly as the build- 
ers of the court-house expected when they placed 
it some distance away from the more densely set- 
tled district, and it appeared somewhat lonely 
and out of place. Passengers on the railroad 
used to wonder what the large building might be, 
never dreaming that a court-house would be 
erected in any other spot than upon the principal 
square or place of the city, this being the cus- 
tom almost everywhere, but the men responsible 
for the selection of the locality may have, in the 
fullest sense of the word, builded better than they 
knew, for the court-house will without question 
be soon surrounded by buildings of modern con- 
struction instead of the old and small houses 
which form the largest part of the old Long 
Island City, and it will thus, with its site which 
overlooks the surrounding district for a consid- 
erable district, be much more imposing and pre- 
sent a grander appearance 'than if it had been 
erected in the center of a comparatively primi- 
tive settlement which will not change its charac- 
ter, once established, for many years to come. 

Not so very far away we find another fine 
building, the old First Ward School of Long 
Island City, which now forms, of course, a part 
of the school system of the Greater City. It 
must be pointed out with emphasis and pardon- 
able pride that this fine structure was erected 
by Long Island City long before consolidation, 
and indeed before the old city of New York be- 
gan to build the large, beautiful and modern 



39 



40 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



schoolhouses which during the last decade have 
sprung up all over the territory under the juris- 
diction of the Board of Education. It shows that 
the residents of Queens were not at all behind 
New York in their estimate of the importance 
of a good education, and in the readiness to pro- 
vide suitable means for this purpose. In fact, 
they were just a little ahead, if anything, and if 
later on the older boroughs progressed with 
somewhat greater strides, the reason for it 
was at least in part that Long Island City had 
already provided sufficiently for its children and 
could wait a while until other districts caught 
up. If the excellfnce of the school system and 
the munificence with which the tools required — 




BOARD WALK, ROCKAWAY 

which includes, of course, buildings as .well as 
books or teachers — are furnished permit a con- 
clusion upon the character of the inhabitants of 
a community, we are safe in saying that the Bor- 
ough of Queens contains a very superior kind 
of men and women. 

Then there is the old Town Hall in Jamaica, 
a large, solid and substantial looking structure in 
a style that was very popular for public build- 
ings a generation or more ago, and which may 
be called a modified French Renaissance with a 
sprinkling of colonial. It has also a mansard roof 
and a tower, not so high as the court-house at 
Long Island City, and with a flat instead of a 
dome roof. The predilection for mansard roofs 
on the part of our immediate forefathers is not 
easily explainable, but that it existed there is no 
doubt, for we find this construction not only in 
public buildings but in many private residences 
that were built with the desire to make somewhat 
of a showing. In this case at least the mansard is 
high and roomy with large windows which give 
light and air, and the many tall chimneys sur- 
rounding it make a very picturesque effect. As 
a whole, the building, with its noble lines and 
free from any attempt at cheap decoration, makes 
a very dignified impression, although it is a little 
old-fashioned. Jamaica has a number of very 
pretty streets, some of which are lined with mod- 



ern cottages, while in others the Dutch and the 
colonial style, which were exclusively used in 
former times, as well as the age cf the buildings 
remind us that the village was settled long ago 
by families of importance and dignity who have 
left their imprint upon the community and whose 
descendants still dwell among us. The stately 
old trees give a special charm to many of these 
thoroughfares, and streets like Clinton or Hills- 
dale Avenues are indeed an ornament to any city. 
There are many such avenues in the different 
settlements in Queens, and we will mention some 
of the more important and prettiest in the course 
of our narrative. 

Entirely different, though not less charming, 
are for instance the views our eyes meet in Far 
Rockaway. Here the soil, with its large admix- 
ture of pure sand, and the high winds prevailing 
during the wintry season present conditions which 
do not favor the growth of tall and strong trees. 
Again, the settlement is more modern, and instead 
of streets we find very broad avenues at whose 
intersections shrubbery and even flower beds are 
placed. The cottages, of all styles of architec- 
ture and in many cases the result of the whim of 
the owner or builder, present an ever changing 
picture, made lively and attractive bj' the con- 
stant change in the surroundings. Here we find 
spacious lawns covering a wide space around each 
cottage, and relieved by shrubs, flowers and 
plants that are carefully nursed. There is nothing 
of tradition, nothing of bygone days in this set- 
tlement, nothing that reminds us of the past, but 
everything calls to the mind the life of the pres- 
ent with its yearning for the bright side, for 
beauty, and for the enjoyment of everything the 
world offers to him who is in position to enjoy it. 
From the shore of the Atlantic we jump to 
the East River and take a peep at the busy water 
front of old Long Island City. The background 
is formed here by high factory buildings, uni- 
form and even monotonous in their appearance, 
devoid of decorations, showing that utility pure 
and simple was considered in their erection, but 
the high smoke-stacks pour forth volumes of 
smoke and tell the story of activity going on 
within those somber walls. Here is the backbone 
of the strength of Queens, so to speak, for here 
all the nerves that make the independent posi- 
tion of the borough possible run together. Nearer 
at the shore are the docks with the long rows of 
piling e.xtending far into the river. Alongside 
the bulwarks erected by human hands mighty 
ocean steamers flying the flags of all the na- 
tions on the face of the earth and manned by 
crews of many nationalities, are fastened to terra 
firma. They rock to and fro, as if they were im- 
patient to be cast loose and to be permitted to 
do battle to their constant enemies, the waves of 




THE OLD VAN PELT HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 




THE OLD DEBEVOISE HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 




THE OLD STEVENS HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 




THE OLD GOSMAN HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



43 



the wide oceans, but they are firmly held in bond 
until the human pigmies that master the enor- 
mous monsters are ready to release them. Some 
of them have brought valuable cargoes from far 
away; perhaps sugar from the Hawaiian Islands 
on the other face of the globe, or lumber from 
the coast of the Pacific, or goods, that are to be 
use°d in manufacturing articles, from Europe or 
Africa. Others, empty bellied, are being filled 
with petroleum that will light the small cabin of 
the semi-savage in a far-away land, or with the 
product of one of the many factories in this 
section. Other steamships, smaller and of less 
solid build, and sailing vessels bring cargoes 
from nearby ports, from New England, the 
South or the West Indies. They come ' and go 
constantly and remain only long enough to be 
relieved of their loads, or to be stuffed again 
until no space is left between their timbers. And 
while they are busy but resting from their long 
vogages, the large Sound steamers, carrying many 
thousands, pass by, flags flying, bands playing and 
whistles hoarsely saluting; small craft of all 
kinds go up and down the river, the expensive 
private yacht, the swift motor boat, the fisher- 
man's yawl and the modest catboat. With the 
regularity of clockwork the broad ferry-boats, 
which seem to rest upon the surface of the waters, 
run almost noiselessly from shore to shore, 
landing at either end of the trip with a great 
deal of clanging of bells, tooting of whistles 
and crashing of timbers. They take on and dis- 
charge immense throngs of busy people, either 
on the way to work or returning to their homes. 
But the army of workers which fills these flying 
bridges does not form an incessant stream that 
flows without interruption. During the middle 
of the day, when it has slackened, its place is 
taken by the many thousands who desire to 
escape the city and to find, health and recreation 
on Long Island. Especially during the summer 
and while the racing season is on, these boats 
are filled with men and women of means who are 
in search of pleasure. Long rows of automo- 
biles take the place of the trucks laden with 
produce or manufactured articles, and in place 
of the blue jumper of the workingman we see 
the long, light-colored coat of the chauffeur and 
the filmy lace garments of Dame Fashion. The 
finest sight, however, for the man or woman who 
feels for humanity is offered on Sundays and 
holidays when the toilers from the large city 
wend their way in untold numbers toward the 
glens and meadows of Long Island, toward the 
gardens and the many resorts along the shore. 
Happy and full of expectation, filled with the 
ardent desire to spend one day of the week 
among the beauties nature provides for every- 
body, yearning for fresh and invigorating air, 



they come forward, clad in their best and full 
of peace and and good will. And in the evening 
they return, tired but happy, their arms holding 
large bunches of wild flowers, their faces bronzed 
by the sun and the winds, their lungs expanded 
with the fresh air of the sea, and ready to be- 
gin battle again on the morrow for a life that 
after all offers so little real enjoyment. Indeed, 
the ferry-boats plying between Manhattan and 
Queens see many phases of human life, and 
here one might study almost all the different and 
so widely diverging conditions in which man is 
placed by fate and the consequences of his own 
acts. 

Not very far from the shore of the East River 
we find a typical settlement of people who toil 
hard during the day and desire to be as near to 
nature during the hours of rest as is possible 
for men who must work early and late, and 
who for this reason cannot live at a great dis- 
tance from the factory, the workshop, or the 
office. This is Woodside, aptly named because 
it is near to a large tract of woodland and it- 
self half village and half garden. The houses 
are for the most part of a modest type, but in 
almost every case surrounded by well and neatly 
kept gardens, and the streets are lined with tall 
shade-trees. Whole rows of these may be justly 
called not only beautiful, but magnificent, and 
a view of the settlement, when the trees are 
covered with green leaves, is enchanting. One 




' BOARD WALK AND BEACH, ARVERNE 

perceives a cluster of dwelling-houses inter- 
spersed with broad green ribbons, and the whole 
scene gives the impression of peace and con- 
tentment which indeed the residents of Wood- 
side feel when they have left the dust of the 
hot factory behind and breathe the pure air 
fragrant with the aroma of the maples and 
lindens on all sides. Close to the settlement 
proper and forming a part of the former village 
of Woodside is a range of low hills, though they 
are high enough to permit a view of the sur- 
rounding country, the East River and the higher 
buildings on Manhattan Island. Here are located 



44 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEEXS 



the residences of a number of prominent New 
York business men, and the city has selected 
this spot for a park which will be established 
as soon as the necessity arises. For the present 
the children of the neighborhood have the woods 
to roam in and are not in need of artificially 
laid out playgrounds, but the time will arrive 
when they will, like their less fortunate brothers 
and sisters in the big citj' across the river, be 
confined to the street or the back yards unless 
the community provides other places. This will 
be done, and with wise foresight the spot has 
alreadj' been selected as one especially adapted 
for the purpose on account of its location and 
natural beauty. 

Farther out on the Long Island Railroad, but 
still within easy reach of the business district 
we find a settlement which is somewhat ditiferent 
from Woodside as well as from Far Rockaway. 
It is somewhat more pretentious than the former 
and not quite as much so as the latter. This is 
Hollis, with several subdivisions, as Hollis Ter- 
race, Hollis Gardens, etc. A great many people 
who formerly lived in Manhattan or Brooklyn 
have settled here and built comfortable houses 
some of which are very substantial and even 
much above the average. The settlement is com- 
paratively new, and it therefore lacks the one 
feature which makes Woodside and other older 
villages so attractive, namely, the shade-trees. 
It is true that in Hollis all the avenues and streets 
are lined with trees, but they are still young and 
tender, and many years will elapse before they 
give to the settlement that characteristic im- 
pression of dignity and' repose that is always 
connected with the long rows of tall, wide-spread- 
ing and ripe old trees, which we see in the older 
communities. But Hollis is develcping finely and 
is attracting a very good class of residents. 
There is no doubt but that it will be one of the 
best known and most highly appreciated locali- 
ties in Queens within a very brief space of 
time. 

There are a number of such settlements within 
the confines of the borough, of all classes, kinds 
and grades. Cedarhurst, not far from Rocka- 
way, is again different, inasmuch as it has at- 
tracted quite a number of rich families who have 
founded a colony of New York society. Here 
the buildings are, of course, very elaborate ; 
some of them can hardly be called cottages but 
are really large houses, though they are built in 
a style which reminds us of the lightly con- 
structed summer house. They are in many cases 
provided with stables and garages, and not a 
few of the establishments are equal to those 
at N'ewport and other places where the wealthy 
go for their amusement. The residents of this 



section devote a considerable part of their time 
to sports, such as races, golf and fox-hunting. 
Some of the best known amateur riders of the 
country reside here. 

It has already been mentioned that a wide 
road is going to be constructed along the shore 
of the Sound from Astoria to Flushing, but this 
will, of course, take time. It will require the 
expenditure of a great amount of money, and 
cannot be begun until more urgent and immedi- 
ately necessary improvements have been com- 
pleted. But there is already a road in existence, 
which does not extend over the whole distance 
mentioned, but which is very pretty and will not 
be forgotten by anybody who ever drove over it. 
It is the shore road, or as it is sometimes called, 
the shore drive in Astoria. Here we have on one 
side green meadows, houses, gardens and trees, 
while on the other one are the placid waters of 
the Sound. The road follows the windings of 
the shore and gives us an opportunity to admire 
the inlets and promontories which mark the 
boundary between land and water like a minia- 
ture reproduction of the coast line of a moun- 
tainous country. It is a charming stretch of 
road, peaceful and idyllic, and from it we can 
form an idea how grand and beautiful the shore 
road extending all along the borough will be 
when completed. Still, the true lover of nature 
will regret the disappearance of this pretty bit 
of road, or rather its transformation into a broad 
paved highway with artificially made flower beds, 
fountains and ornaments, and bordered by care- 
fully trimmed trees. When all this has been in- 
troduced and the multitude crowds the new drive, 
the world will be richer by a beautiful piece of 
work, but a bit of nature, precious to many, will 
be lost. But we must not complain for it is 
unavoidable that the growth of the cities does 
away with many things which we would like to 
retain, and which ought to be retained, but must 
make room for the inexorable demands of stern 
necessity. 

Some distance before the settlement of Stein- 
way is reached the old shore drive winds its way 
inland, and emerges again from the built-up part, 
at the shore of the Bowery Bay. Ever since 
colonial times. New York business men built 
houses on this ba}' in order to spend the summer. 
Later on the Steinways had their cottages here, 
and in the early nineties the late William Stein- 
way conceived the idea of founding a place where 
the masses could find innocent amusement. He 
succeeded in interesting the well known brewer, 
George Eh ret, and soon the new establishment, 
Bowery Bay Beach, was in full swing. The 
name was shortly after changed to North Beach. 
The place was built up on quite a large scale. 




THE OLD BRAGAW HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 




THE OLD MOORE HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 




FLUSHING POST OFFICE 
SCHUMACHER BLR 



RICKERT-FINLAY BLD. 
BACH BLD. 
ROGERS BLD. AND STATION AT BROADWAY, FLUSHING 



N.Y. & N.J. TELEPHONE BLD. 
BARTLETT BLD. 



BUSIXESS BUILDINGS IN FLUSHING 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



47 



All the popular forms of amusements were pro- 
vided, theaters, merry-go-rounds, Ferris wheels, 
toboggan slides, chutes, etc. A wide road along 
the shore was laid out, and an old mansion 
changed into a restaurant. The place became 
very popular although it could not successfully 
compete with Coney Island and the resorts on 
the shore of the Atlantic. Still it grew and 
flourished and furnished enjoyment for many 
who lived in localities from which North Beach 
could be easily reached. 

After having contemplated nature we will re- 
turn to a few of the building that are worth 
being noted. The first structure that confronts 
the passengers alighting from the ferry-boats 
in Long Island City is the depot and terminal 
of the Long Island Railroad. It is not a very 
imposing or beautiful building; it seems rather 
to have been erected with a view of furnishing 
the space required for the transaction of busi- 
ness with as little expense as possible. The rail- 
roads of this country have not yet learned to 
appreciate the fact that in the erection of sta- 
tions and depots other considerations should 
be weighed than the mere question of providing 
office space and the absolutely necessary shelter 
for the waiting passengers. They seldom con- 
sider the comfort of the passengers sufficiently, 
and only in a few instances have they made at- 
tempts at ornamentation of their buildings. This 
polic5' may justly be called short-sighted, for 
even a railroad should try to secure the good will 
of its customers, that is, the passengers who fur- 
nish so large a part of the income. Of course, 
the Long Island Railroad has a monopoly of 
steam transportation in the territory it serves, 
but this should not prevent it from caring for 
its passengers to the fullest extent of its ability. 
And who knows, whether in the near future 
steam transportation will not be superseded by 
electricity on an island that is by no means too 
large to be traversed in every direction by elec- 
tric cars, running swiftly and with great fre- 
quency? However this may be, the fact re- 
mains that the depot at Long Island City is sub- 
stantial enough but by no means worthy of the 
great railroad which it serves, nor commodious 
enough for the large traffic it has to accommo- 
date at times. There is one fact which may ex- 
cuse the railroad for spending more money for 
it, and that is the probability that after the com- 
pletion of the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels this 
station will lose a large part of its present im- 
portance. If it is maintained in future as here- 
tofore, it would not only appear to be the duty 
of the railroad to replace the present barnlike 
structure with a larger and more artistic building, 
but it may also be said without serious danger of 
contradiction that such a step would serve the 



road as an advertisement the value of which in 
regard to enlarging its business can hardly be 
overestimated. 

A building of an entirely different type and 
devoted to an entirely different use is Grace 
Episcopal Church in Jamaica. There are many 
larger and more highly ornamented churches in 
this country, not to speak of the Old World, but 
there are few that in their exterior appearance so 
thoroughly express the spirit that reigns within and 
lend, to the erection of the church. The digni- 
fied and massive building itself, covered with 
green ivy and surrounded by beautiful trees, 
shows that repose which is the touchstone of true 
art and which arouses contentment and the blessed 
feeling of quiet peace in the heart of the weary 
wanderer who approaches it But the finest fea- 
ture of this church is its tower, rising upon mass- 
ive stone columns or piers, from the tops of 
which, above the belfry, a spire rises that is the 
very embodiment of beauty and symbolistic sig- 
nificance. This spire tapers so gracefully that it 
appears much higher than it really is, and it fills 
everybody who is not completely dead to the high- 
er emotions with the desire to follow it up and 
up into the regions where its highest point seems 
to be lost. If ever a spire deserved to be called 
the finger that points out the way to heaven, that 
calls the sinner to the road leading to salvation, 
it is certainly this one of the Grace Episcopal 
Church of Jamaica. 

The flower gardens of Floral, Park have been 
mentioned already. On a level plain we find here 
almost every known variety of plants and flowers 
that will thrive in this climate. Immense beds 
are covered with blossoms, and shrubs as well 
as trees surround us on all sides. Especially dur- 
ing the spring and early summer the scene is 
really enchanting, and the air is filled with the 
fragrance of millions' of flowers. The effect is 
not limited to the vast stretches of ground where 
plants are grown for the market or for their 
seeds, but the residents of the neighborhood nat- 
urally profit by the nearness of the greenhouses 
and flower plantations, and emulate their ex- 
ample in their own gardens which are as fine and 
perhaps finer than those in most of the other 
settlements. There is only one thing missing: the 
old trees which give so much character to a land- 
scape. We find them in the pretty and well kept 
Flushing Park, surrounding a beautiful fountain 
and giving shade and coolness to women and 
children, who come here to rest or play. They 
are also to be seen in old Newtown, shading the 
avenues that have not yet b6<;n changed by the 
forward march of modern buildings. Several of 
the roads have retained their rural character and 
lead the wanderer through gardens and stately 
groups of high trees past dwellings that are both 



48 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



attractive and speak of quietness ,peace and hap- 
piness. 

Going back to Astoria, we find in ]\Iain Street 
especially all the signs of a steady transformation. 
The old wooden buildings are slowly disappear 
ing, and in their places arise substantial houses 
of brick and stone. Many blocks are built up 
solidly, and every year brings not only improve- 
ment but also extension. The principal streets 
and avenues do no longer impress the visitor who 
arrives at the ferry landing as if they were strag- 
gling away from the busy center of the village 




GRACE CHURCH, JAMAICA 

into a distant desert, halting here and there, with 
great gaps in the rows of houses, but they are 
becoming compact masses. At the same time the 
stores are growing larger and more pretentious, 
the indications are getting stronger that business 
activity is on the increase, and that in this re- 
spect also the borough is striving to become in- 
dependent of its neighbors. Main Street, the 
principal business thoroughfare, is no longer a 
cheap and tawdry imitation of a similar street 
in a large city, but a real center of considerable 
importance. Traffic is heavy here, even if we 
do not consider the long lines of trucks and 
wagons which wend their way toward the ferry in 
the morning, and return empty in the evening. 
Trade is brisk, and the electric cars, moving swift- 
ly among the delivery wagons and the carriages 
with the help of which the residents transact 
their business, make the scene a lively one indeed. 
It becomes especially attractive on a summer 
holiday or Sunday when the throngs of city 
dwellers in bright garments and with the joy of 
the pleasure seeker upon theirs faces roll past 
in the cars or wend their way slowly to their 
destination on the sidewalks. Astoria can indeed 
be proud of the way in which its main business 
street is growing and improving. And this is a 



good sign, for the condition of the principal thor- 
oughfare, and the fact whether it remains stag- 
nant or is constantly changing for the better, is 
a good indication of the prosperity and the en- 
terprise of a locality. 

There are two or more churches in Jamaica 
which deserve notice. They are both built in a 
much simpler style than the one we have de- 
scribed, because the denominations which wor- 
ship in them are devoted to greater simplicity 
in this respect, but they are also fine buildings. 
The Chapel of the Sisters in Prospect Cemetery 
is a massive, square, vaultlike structure with an 
arched entrance, showing a deep recess. It is 
eminently fitted in design for the purpose it serves 
and makes a deep impression. The Reformed 
Church is larger and more pretentious, but also 
quiet in design and outline. According to cus- 
tom, its steeple is cut off abruptly just above the 
belfry, but the broad sweep of steps leading to 
the entrance and being flanked by two projecting 
towers gives the building an open and inviting 
aspect which is exceedingly agreeable. The high 
and broad windows on all sides, surmounted by 
round arches, fill the church with a flood of light, 
.^s is eminentl}' fitting, this church is enclosed by 
green trees, while the Sisters' Chapel is sur- 
rounded by dark firs and cedars. 

A striking contrast to these modern houses of 
worship is furnished by the old Quaker meeting- 
house at Flushing which was erected in 1695. It 
is a square building constructed of clapboards 
with a shingled roof that slants from all' four 
walls towards the center, leaving but a short 
ridge line. The foundation consists of rough 
stone, and on one side a small porch is added. 
The windows are square, and about the only at- 
tempt at diversification is shown in the fact that 
in one of the long walls the iwo outer windows 
are of about double the size of the two inner ones. 
However, other reasons inay have caused this de- 
parture from strict and rigid simplicity. Under 
any circumstances, the old meeting-house shows 
how little our forbears asked for unnecessary 
decorations, and how firm they were in their re- 
solve to allow nothing to interfere with their 
thoughts in worshiping. 

Not far from this meeting-house stands the 
old Bowne house which is even older, having been 
erected in 1661, a low, long structure, built of 
the same material. It is almost hidden by bushes 
and vines that reach to the eaves of the steep 
gabled roof. In appearance it is not very much 
different from the old houses we find in many of 
the Eastern States and even in New York and 
New Jersey, but it is noteworthy because it has 
withstood the march of several centuries and 
still serves its purpose, although on all sides 
modern structures have grown up. 




THE OLD PAYNTAR HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 




THE OLD DURYEA HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 




THE RAPELVE MANSION, ASTORIA 




THE OLD WASHINGTON HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



51 



Astoria does not stand alone as far as modern 
business buildings are concerned. There are at 
least a dozen similar examples of enterprise in 
Jamaica. The building of the Bank of Jamaica 
is one of the best. It is built of brick, three sto- 
ries high, with large arched windows in the two 
lower stories. Very substantial, as a place where 
money is deposited and kept should be, the struc- 
ture contains as fine offices as can be procured 
anywhere, and is a real ornament to the village 
at the same time. In Jamaica we find also the 
Adikes Building, erected by the firm of the same 
name, and used by them for their extensive pro- 
vision trade. Here it was not desired nor neces- 
sary to produce the effect of soliditj' and firmness, 
and more attention was given to the ornamental 
side with great success. 

There is only one short step from business to 
manufacturing, or, rather, the two are so inter- 
woven that they can hardly be separated. A de- 
scription of the Borough of Queens would in- 
deed be incomplete if the giant factories of the 
firm of Steinway & Sons at Steinway were not 
mentioned. We have seen how William Steinway 
bought a large tract of land near Bowery Bay 
with the intention of erecting his factory and 
houses for the employes. The buildings devoted 
to the making of pianos now cover several acres, 
and there are also several other enterprises con- 
nected with the establishment. They are, of course, 
factories like all others but still a little different 
from a great many in that they are well taken 
care of, and that an attempt is made to hide the 
ugly spots which cannot be obliterated entirely 
where a business of this nature is carried on. 
The Steinways did not consider their duty done 
when they started their factories, and they did 
not leave it to their employes to find shelter as 
best they could. They either built dwellings and 
rented them to the working men, or they assisted 
them in acquiring their own homes. And one 
of their first steps was to build a gas plant and 
water works, in order to supply the comforts and 
conveniences to which modern man is used. The 
village of Steinway that sprung up around the 
brick piles forming the workshops of the firm 
was in many ways far ahead of other settle- 
ments in Queens for a long time, even of some 
situated much nearer to the former city of New 
York and the line of travel from thence to Long 
Island. It was laid out on a liberal scale, and its 
principal thoroughfare, Steinway Avenue, is a 
broad road with spacious sidewalks protected by 
shade-trees. It bids fair to become one of the 
most important and at the same time most beauti- 
ful streets of the borough, especially as the dis- 
trict is rapidly developing and cottages are spring- 
ing up on the side streets in goodly numbers. Sev- 
eral blocks are already completely covered with 



brick buildings containing stores on the lower 
floors. Taken all in all, Steinway is rapidly prov- 
ing the foresightedness and good business judg- 
ment of its founder who saw it grow up but did 
not live to see it flourish and take first rank 
among the newer settlements. He was the first 
one to perceive that a tunnel under the East River 
was the best means of securing communication 
between Manhattan and Long Island and thereby 
developing Queens. He secured the first franchise 
for the underground passage between the two 
boroughs, and while he was at the time attacked 
from many quarters for his foolish notion, as 
it was called, that people would ever care to 
travel through a hole in the ground, events have 
proved that he was right. Not Steinway alone, 
but the whole Borough of Queens has already 
felt the effect of the construction of tunnels that 
are not yet in use, and it will feel them in a 
much larger measure as soon as electric under- 
ground transit to Manhattan Borough has become 
a feality. 

A view of College Point shows a friendly vil- 
lage laid out for the most part in i-egular squares. 
It is really a small city, with good schools, fac- 
tories, and everything else that makes a communi- 




PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, JAMAICA 

ty complete. Outside of the part in which the 
large mansions and spacious grounds of wealthy 
families are located, the dwellings are for the 
greater part nice and well appointed cottages that 
can be erected with moderate outlay. Pretty 
gardens and fine trees are there in abundance and 
give the village a friendly air, at the same time 
pr.otecting it against the danger of becoming citi- 
fied. It is hardly possible to combine the ad- 
vantages of city and country life in a more per- 
fect way than is done in College Point. It should 
be mentioned that near the shore we find several 
large establishments which, with other similar 



52 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



places at Whitestone, provide entertainment for 
large excursion parties. Here most of the out- 
ings of the political organizations of the Greater 
City are held, enormous quantities of victuals and 
liquid refreshments are disposed of in one day, 
and many a political deal that does not see the 
day until months after is engineered. One large 
building at College Point must not be forgotten : 
the Berechah Orphanage, an institution, as the 
name indicates, for the care of orphaned children. 
Let us return to the seashore and glance once 
more at the Rockaways and Arverne. We have 
spoken of the cottages along the wide roads. 
There are also other things to see; in the first 
place the large hotels which cover considerable 
ground and house thousands during the summer 
months. With their myriads of lights, the sound 
of the music and the conversation of the guests, 
with the many-colored dresses of the women and 
the dull beating of the waves against the sandy 
shore, they form an enchanting series of living 
pictures as one wanders along the strand after 
the sun has set. In the daytime the scene is not 
less interesting and varied. Hundreds, aye, thou- 
ands of people are in the water, enjoying the re- 
freshing salt water and the surf which throws 
them in all directions when the heavy rollers come 
in. Others rest on the white sand after the bath 
or indulge in games, if not in innocent flirtation. 
Others again lounge on the broad piazzas and 
verandas of the hostelries, enjoying the meals or 
gazing idly over the broad expanse of the ocean 
and the foam-capped waves. Along the shore we 
find a number of charitable institutions where 
invalids, especially women and children, are cared 
for, and others which give to poor mothers the 
opportunity to rest for a day or a week, or if 
need be, even longer, from their arduous life 
among the tenements. There are also the nur- 
series devoted to the care of smaller children, 
manjf of whom would never see the ocean or feel 
a cool breeze on a summer day if more fortunate- 
ly situated people did not furnish the funds for 
establishing the homes devoted to so noble a 
purpose. These children from the densely popu- 
lated districts of the big city enjoy the novelty 
of a trip to the seashore certainly as much, per- 
haps much more, than those who take it freqeunt- 
ly. The difference is, however, not visible, for 
the army of children that romps on the sand or 
in the surf, or enjoys the delights of the merry- 
go-round and other similar contrivances, is en- 
tirely unanimous in the conviction that nothing 
better can exist in the world and in the life to 
come. The seashore is a great leveler as soon 
as the hotel, the cottage or the boarding-house 
has been left behind, and neither the necessary 
regards for fine company nor the fear of appear- 
ing to disadvantage before the dignified waiter 



forces constraint upon the man intent upon mak- 
ing a good appearance. And after the clothes 
are taken off that shut the real man off from 
air and sunshine, when the bathing suit has been 
donned then democracy reigns supreme and all 
are alike, act alike and seen to become familiar 
with each other without formal introduction. It 
is curious how man or woman changes according 
to the clothes he or she wears, and it seems as 
if even the most dignified and exacting did not 
consider it necessary to keep up the rules laid 
down for constant use, the moment their clothes 
do not require it any longer. 

And the variety we see in the life at the sea- 
shore we find also in the buildings that comprise 
the settlements. The large and expensive villa 
with spacious grounds, the small cottages stand- 
ing close to each other, the big hotel with wide 
verandas, the small boarding-house catering to 
the great middle class, the pretentious store with 
plate glass windows containing a stock of goods 
large enough to feed a village, and the little stand 
erected for use during a few months only, they 
are all neighbors and permit all elements of 
the ever-changing army that seeks not only rest 
and recreation, but frequently also the opportuni- 
ty to get rid of a superabundance of tempera- 
ment, to fill their wants according to habit, in- 
clination and the size of the purse, which is al- 
ways the final arbiter and against whose decision 
no appeal lies. Thus we see Seaside Avenue for 
instance, with its long rows of low wooden build- 
ings, of which only a few rise above the second 
story, and again we find a block away another 
street with substantial brick, iron and stone 
structures, like the one of the Far Rockaway 
Bank on Center Avenue. No less imposing are 
the Wynn Building and the Jennings Building, as 
well as many others too numerous to mention. 
And while the greater part of the cottages at Far 
Rockaway stands upon large plots of grounds, 
there are there as well as at Arverne rows of 
them which are divided only by small strips of 
grass or narrow beds of flowers. These smaller 
cottages are roomy and in almost every case en- 
circled with broad verandas, but there is a cer- 
tain uniformity about them. They are all the 
same distance apart, and their front steps form 
an absolutely straight line. A row of a dozen 
or even more cottages may be built from two, 
or at the most three, sets of plans alternately em- 
ployed. In other words, there is no real variety 
visible, and the uniformity is only sufficiently in 
terrupted to avoid monotony. These houses have 
not been erected by the people living in them, but 
by enterprising builders who let whole rows of 
them go up at the same time, and either sell or 
rent the completed dwellings. It is true that 
districts developed after this plan lack individu- 




KING MANOR, JAMAICA 




COLONIAL HALL, JAMAICA 




ARMORY 17 SEP. CO. N.G.N.Y., FLUSHING 





1 


1 






... - 




■ 



PUBLIC LIBRARY, FLUSHING 




OLD MANOR HOUSE IN EAST RIVER PARK 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



55 



ality, inasmuch as the owners or occupants of 
the dwellings have had no opportunity to give 
play to their individual tastes, but it would be 
decidedly wrong to infer from this that they 
are ugly. On the contrary, the sameness which 
may be disagreeable and almost offensive when 
blocks of houses exactly alike in every particu- 
lar are erected in the city where they adjoin each 
other and where materials like brick and stone 
are used, does not appear in the outlying dis- 
tricts for various reasons. One of them is that 
intervening spaces soften the monotony, and that 
in very little time little touches of individual 
taste appear in the treatment of the garden 
spaces in front of the buildings. Again, a dwell- 
ing constructed of wood appears much lighter and 
friendlier, and even if several of them, alike in 
every particular, are placed alongside of each 
other, they do not produce the effect of same- 
ness which is fatiguing to the eye. And above 
all, American builders have hit upon a way of 
constructing these frame cottages that is not only 
eminently practical inasmuch as it reduces the 
cost and permits of the erection of many of them 
at the same time and with great despatch, but 
also gives to them an artistic exterior pleasing 
and tasteful at the same time. Add to this the. 
opportunity to decorate the wide verandas, of 
which the inhabitants make the fullest use, and 
it is comparatively easy to overcome the tendency 
to monotony in a row of similar buildings to 
combat which is a hopeless task as far as brown- 
stone houses are concerned. The natural con- 
sequence is that districts like Rockaway, Far 
Rockaway and Arverne are distinctly pretty lo- 
calities where it is good to live and to visit even 
if the presence of the ocean with all its pleasures 
is left out of account. 

Once more we must retrace our steps and take 
another look at Jamaica, so long the principal 
place of the County of Queens. Here, as we 
have already seen, the past and the present are 
close to each other, and modern and old build- 
ings rub elbows. The old Governor King home 
shows the way in which our forefathers built 
their houses. It is a large, square structure, the 
walls covered with weather boards, and the win- 
dows set wide apart. One can see that there 
must be plenty of room in the house for the mass- 
ive pieces of furniture which could not be placed 
in modern dwellings with their many openings 
for light and ventilation set closely together. We 
are reminded that fashion, much abused, is after 
all not altogether unreasonable in its demands, but 
that it is closely related and interwoven with the 
customs and habits of life. And these are not 
taken up at will or on account of a sudden and 
often unreasonable whim, but are more frequently 
the natural consequences of changes brought about 



by necessity or unalterable conditions. Thus the 
improvements wrought in the construction and 
use of heating apparatus caused a complete up- 
heaval in the construction of dwellings. As long 
as the open fireplace reigned it was difficult to 
produce the warmth necessary for comfort. Quite 
naturally great care was taken to shut out the 
cold air as much as possible, and just enough win- 
dows were provided for to give the light re- 
quired and to permit of ventilation. Thus every 
room contained large wall spaces and furnished 
the opportunity to place immense bedsteads, ward- 
robes, cupboards, etc., without interfering with 
the freedom of movement. When the self-heater 
came into use, it was possible to have more and 
larger windows, and under the modern system of 
heating by hot air, water or steam, there is no 
longer any difficulty of warming any room, how- 
ever constructed. Hence the wall spaces which 
shut off the interior entirely from the view of 
the outside grew steadily smaller, while the win- 
dows grew larger, in many cases taking up one 
whole side of a room. Nor did it remain im- 
perative to consider, in the construction of a 
house, that as little wall space as possible should 
be exposed to wind and weather, and while in the 
old houses of a century or more ago a room 
never had more than two outside walls, the other 
two being partitions that separated it from an- 
other room within the building, new conditions 
permitted an entirely different construction. The 
outside walls were broken and rooms thrown out 
over the foundation line with three of their walls 
exposed. Not only irregularity but infinite vari- 
ety was thus produced as far as the outer appear- 
ance was concerned, and inside the dwelling nooks 
and corners could be arranged which were not 
only cosy ■and easily decorated with pretty effect, 
but gave a larger number of rooms and greater 
privacy to the different members of the family. 
But the new fashion, if we may call it this, made 
it impossible to use the massive pieces of furni- 
ture our ancestors were fond of, and new styles, 
suitable for changed conditions, had to be found. 
This is the real reason why the furniture of the 
present day is of entirely different character, and 
those who lament the change should not forget 
that not a whim of fashion but stern necessity 
brought it about. Besides, what we have lost 
in massiveness, we have gained in graceful lines, 
and as we do not settle down in one spot for the 
rest of our life as early as our forefathers used 
to do, but move about with much more freedom, 
we should not complain of the loss of the kind 
of furniture that was constructed with the in- 
tention to serve several generations in the same 
dwelling, and could hardly be removed from one 
place to another, as is done to-day by almost 
every family every few years, without an ex- 



56 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



pense that is out of all proportion to the present 
cost of moving. It is possible that the popula- 
tion of the large American cities would not have 
become as migratory and restless as it is to-day 
if the old furniture had been retained, but it is 
idle to indulge in speculation on questions of 
this kind. For many other considerations enter 
and must be weighed before a decision is ren- 
dered, of which only one shall be named : that 
the constant changes in the character of the city, 
the expansion of the business district and the 
entrance of new and different elements into the 
population compel a large part of the inhabitants 
to change their domicile from day to day. The 
shifting and moving going on constantly is by 
no means always voluntary; it is, rather, com- 
pulsory in the majority of cases, though it can- 
not be denied that the consequence of these con- 
ditions is a spirit of restlessness in the people 
that induces them to be forever on the lookout 
for new quarters, and makes it impossible for 
^hem to feel fully satisfied with their location 
wherever it may be. 




OLD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEWTOWN 

To return to the Governor King home, we 
find that very little effort to enhance the 
beauty of the building is discernible. In fact, 
there is nothing beautiful about it except its 
simplicity which gives to it a certain dignity. 
The center window is surmounted by an arch 
and flanked by smooth panels, and the en- 
trance is protected by a porch supported by 
four Ionic columns. We might speak of it 
as of a stately mansion, for with the immense 
old trees which surround it, it makes indeed 
an impression of strength and substance. But, 
after all, it is quite clear that it was the in- 
tention and object of the builder to provide a 
good and roomy, as well as comfortable, house for 
himself and his family, and that he was not in- 
fluenced to any degree by other considerations. It 
answered its purpose, and that is all that is re- 
quired. 

This old house forms a striking contrast 
to a new building that was erected for the 



Jamaica Club. The material is the same, 
namely, wood, but here we see how man has 
learned to use it in a variety of ways. The 
walls are shingled, the windows are of many 
different sizes and arranged either singly or 
in groups of two and three. The columns sup- 
porting the roof of the wide piazza, the rail- 
ings and the newel posts are slender and of 
many shapes. The necessity of avoiding ex- 
posure to wind and rain did not exist, and 
the ground plans of the different floors could 
therefore be laid out with the single view to 
variety and picturesqueness. The main part 
of the building is indeed square, for the square 
is after all the starting point of the architect, 
but a wing is added projecting from the rear 
line, which is much narrower than the main 
part. This produces already an effect of va- 
riety. In addition the upper story of the build- 
ing is broken into at one corner, and a recess 
is thus formed which is made use of for tlie 
construction of a balcony accessible from a 
room that projects from the building proper. 
The large veranda is surmounted by an oc- 
tagonal tower with pointed roof. The roof 
line is broken not only by peaked windows 
but also wherever it could be done in har- 
mony with the construction. Here we have 
a good example of modern ideas as opposed to 
those prevailing centuries ago and exempli- 
fied in the King mansion. It would be idle 
to argue the question which of them is better 
and preferable, for each one was used to con- 
form with exigencies of the times, and while 
Governor King could not have built a house 
like that of the Jamaica Club because the 
means were not at hand, he would not have 
done it if he could, because the house at his 
time would have been useless to him. On 
the other hand, an old-fashioned house like 
the one in question would not have suited the 
Jamaica Club, because it would have been well 
nigh impossible to provide within its walls 
and its large rooms the kind of comfort that 
was sought after. 

We have spoken of some of the older streets 
of Jamaica, with their magnificent old trees. 
The reader might infer from what we have 
said that the village is still resting in the 
dreams of olden times. This is by no means 
the case. On the contrary, Jamaica has dur- 
ing the last ten years or more grown very 
rapidly, and whole districts have been built 
up. We find here conditions similar to those 
we have described at Hollis and Rockaway. 
In fact, the development of the suburbs of 
a great city is generally the same, speaking 
broadly, except where special and unusual 
conditions exist. Now Queens has one great 




STREET VIEW IN EAST RIVER HEIGHTS SECTION 




GARRISON HOTEL, FORT TOTTEN, L.I. 




HIGH SCHOOL. JAMAICA 




HIGH SCHOOL, RICHMOND HHX 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



59 



advantage that has not been mentioned in 
this connection. We have spoken of its nat- 
ural beauty, and of its nearness to the center 
of the city on one side, and to the Sound and 
the ocean on the other. But there is another, 
more practical advantage that facilitates the 
settlement, namely, the wide plains which the 
early settlers found so well suited to the rac- 
ing of horses that old Queens County be- 
came the cradle of horse-racing on this con- 
tinent. It is of immense value, and can hardly 
be overestimated, that whole districts, in real- 
ity new cities of considerable size, may be laid 
out here and settled without the necessity of re- 
moving a single cubic yard of earth for the 
purpose of grading the streets. There are no 
hills to level, no rocks to blast and remove, no 
gullies that must be filled. It is true that there 
are swamps and wet meadows in plenty, but they 
have either not been reached yet because enough 
dry land was ready for settlement, or they can, 
slowly and without much expense, be filled with 
the earth that is excavated when cellars are pro- 
vided for new houses. In most of the settlements 
that have grown up so far it was only neces- 
sary to trace the streets and drive the surveyor's 
stakes into the ground. The grade was always 
right, and nowhere had the family that bought 
a modest home in the suburbs to fear that after 
a few years or even earlier the costly process of 
regulating and grading would be undertaken, 
compelling the owner of every house on the 
street to either lower or raise it, or to live upon 
a small mountain with steep precipice at the 
front door, or again to see his second story 
changed into a basement, several feet below the 
level of the street. This fact has been of im- 
mense benefit and has brought thousands of set- 
tlers into the borough; it has at the same time 
facilitated the operations of the companies who 
bought large tracts and subdivided them. It has 
also cheapened the cost of the property because 
the expense of putting it into shape for the mar- 
ket was inconsiderable. We must bear this in 
mind when we wander through the part of Ja- 
maica that has been settled during the last dec- 
ade or so, and if we do, it will not surprise us 
to see how houses and cottages have multiplied 
here. The avenues are very wide, also a con- 
sequence of the formation, for where streets 
must be cut through hills, or rock, or where land 
must be filled in to construct them, the seller 
naturally makes them as narrow as he can with- 
out endangering the value of his property, be- 
cause work of this kind is expensive. All these 
thoroughfares are lined with pretty and sub- 
stantial cottages, and the custom of doing away 
with fences, now so prevalent, is here strictly 
adhered to. It follows that we do not see single 



houses with small gardens, separated from each 
other, but that the settlement appears like one 
continuous large garden with pretty houses be- 
tween the trees and shrubs. The side streets, are 
of course, not as wide as the main avenues, but 
they are all and every one of generous width. 
Such thoroughfares as, for instance, Bergan and 
Hardenbrook Avenues are indeed striking ex- 
amples of what modern cottage colonies should 
be, and they are by no means exceptions, but 
may justly be taken as illustrations of the work 
that has been done in and around Jamaica, and 
is going on all the time at a progressive rate. 

This refers, of course, to the newer and out- 
lying districts. The main part of the town is 
closely built up, and a view from the tower of 
the town hall shows a large expanse of houses of 
all kinds interspersed with the green of the trees. 
Here the streets are not so wide but not nearly so 
narrow as many in the old and fully settled 
boroughs. The younger communities are for- 
tunate inasmuch as they can profit from the mis- 
takes made by the older ones, and this is gen- 
erally done in one respect at least, namely in 
sufficient provision for space for streets, public 
places and parks. Of course, being human, it 
is almost unavoidable that the men administering 
the affairs of new settlements make other 
mistakes, but even these can be more 
easily remedied. To prove the truth of this as- 
sertion we may cite an instance that shows clearly 
how difficult it may become in time to do a thing 
that appears obvious and is really necessary, but 
has for some unaccountable reason been over- 
looked in the past. When Central Park was laid 
out in the old city of New York, Fifty-ninth 
Street was fixed as its southern boundary. Why 
this was done nobody knows. Knowing nothing 
of the reasons of the commissioners who laid out 
the park, nor of the conditions governing their 
actions, we cannot understand at this day why 
the park was not extended two blocks further 
south, in order to make the much wider Fifty- 
seventh Street its boundary line. It should have 
been self-evident even so many years ago that the 
street immediately adjoining the park must be- 
come a great artery of travel, and that for this 
reason it should be wider than the streets of old 
New York are, with a few exceptions. But no- 
body thought of either extending the park as 
described or widening Fifty-ninth Street. Either 
step could have been taken at the time the park 
was established with comparatively little expense. 
Anyway, it was not done, and the city is now 
confronted by a problem that defies solution be- 
cause the value of the property has risen to such 
proportions that the acquirement of the land 
between Fifty-ninth and Fifty-seventh Streets and 
Fifth and Eighth Avenues is not to be thought 



60 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



of, while the widening of Fifty-ninth Street, 
which has frequently been advocated, would also 
require an outlay of many millions of dollars. In 
a comparatively new community such errors can 
easily be rectified, because the expense connected 
with the changes is not very large. It is, of 
course, highly improbable that such glaring mis- 
takes will be committed anywhere now, because 
■we have learned, what was not known and hardly 
considered possible or probable even fifty years 
ago, that our large cities are growing at a pace 
which our fathers could not foresee or dream of. 
The case is cited as an example only, to prove 
that lack of foresight may lead to very awkward 
conditions for which no remedy exists, and to 
show that the officials governing young and grow- 
ing communities are acting wisely in providing 
rather more space for streets and parks than ap- 
pears necessary for the immediate future. 

Jamaica's court-house is unique in many re- 
spects. As a rule we find the court-house of a 
village in the center of a public square and of a 
style of architecture that immediately proclaims 
its character as a building used for public pur- 
poses. But this court-house stands on the side 
of a public street well within the stoop line, and 
has nothing to distinguish it from an office 
building of a superior kind. It is, however, very 
well and solidly built of red brick with sand- 
stone trimmings, and handsomely ornamented in 
the Romanesque style. What reasons the au- 
thorities had to deviate from a custom followed 
almost everywhere in the United States, we do 
not know, but one thing is certain: this court- 
bouse serves its purpose much better than many 
highly pretentious and very expensive buildings 
of a similar kind. If it is a businesslike affair, 
we must not forget that it is intended for the 
transaction of business of the most important and 
valuable kind and that it does no harm if our 
officials, be they judges or commissioners or any- 
thing else, are sometimes reminded that they 
should discharge their duties in a businesslike 
way. The building provides high, light and airy 
rooms from which the noise of the streets can 
easily be shut out, and this is all it is intended 
to do. We have therefore no right to criticize 
those who selected the site, but may rather com- 
mend them that they broke with a custom that 
should be followed only here where good reasons 
can be advanced in its behalf. 

When speaking of Jamaica we must not over- 
look the Presbyterian Church. Although a mod- 
est house of worship it is a very good specimen 
of the churches that were erected all over the 
country before congregations became large and 
wealthy enough to build the palatial edifices we 
now find in many of the big cities. While it is 
no doubt true that size and beauty in ornamenta- 



tion and decoration may add greatly to the effect 
produced upon the hearts of those assembled for 
the purpose of worship, there are many who to 
this day prefer simplicity and quiet repose, free 
from all attempts of heightening the impressions 
produced by simple music and the words of the 
preacher. The old little wooden church still oc- 
cupies a place in the heart of many a man or 
woman who is not nearly as much attracted by 
the pomp and grandeur found in some of the 
more modern temples. Now the Presbyterian 
Church of Jamaica is neither old nor little, but it 
is as simple and dignified as any one could wish. 

Flushing has been mentioned as one of the 
oldest settlements in the borough, and it has been 
indeed of great importance and influence. It is 
well worth while to devote a little more space to 
it. One of its old dwelling-houses we have al- 
ready mentioned but there is another one that 
deserves a few words in passing. It is the old 
Garretson homestead, built in 1658, and still in 
use. This old house stands behind a low re- 
taining wall capped by a thick hedge. The front 
is so completely covered with vines that from the 
street we see but the top of the portico extending 
the whole length of the building. Above this 
rises the slanting roof to the long ridge line. 
The house has only one story with a garret, but 
is very long, the long side fronting the street. 
It is evidently composed of an originally smaller 
building to which from time to time, as neces- 
sity or the increase of the family required, ad- 
ditions have been made by simply lengthening it. 
This used to be the custom in former times and 
is indeed done now in the country districts. The 
old house is well taken care of and shows no 
signs of decay, it is in fact far prettier and cer- 
tainly more picturesque than not a few of the 
buildings erected much later and even in modern 
times. 

The town hall of Flushing is a very fine mod- 
ern building. While neither very striking nor 
original in appearance, it has good lines and is 
exceptionally well adapted to the purposes it is 
destined to serve. The general outline and dec- 
orations are of Moorish character, and the struc- 
ture, while quite large and roomy, makes a light 
and graceful impression. Among the trees sur- 
rounding it a large elm right in front of the 
entrance is especially beautiful and worthy of 
mention. The town hall is another proof of the 
fact that the population of Flushing always in- 
sists upon getting the best that can be procured 
for the money at the disposal of the community. 
There is a large fund of firm purpose and of set- 
tled determination in this village, combined with 
the faculty to appreciate what is good and, we 
might almost say, superior. In Flushing people 
of substance, who were bound to the locality by 




POPPENHUSEN INSTITUTE, FLUSHING 




FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL ERECTED IN FLUSHING 
OLD LINCOLN SCHOOL AT LINCOLN AND UNION STS. 




PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. I, LONG ISLAND CITY 



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PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 2ig, GERMAN SETTLEMENT, LONG ISLAND CITY 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



63 



stronger ties than the mere fact that it happened 
to give them their sustenance or that it was good 
to live in for a time until some other place 
seemed preferable, have always exerted considera- 
ble influence upon public opinion and therefore 
upon the administration. The consequence has 
been that the village was not used so much, as is 
frequently the case with other communities, by 
designing politicians for the purpose of feathering 
their own nests without much regard for the gen- 
eral welfare. There is much local pride here 
which prevents people from neglecting their civic 
duties, and does not permit the development of 
the spirit that public business may be left to a 
few professional politicians as long as they do not 
interfere with the affairs of the private citizen. 
The result is visible in many directions, and 
Flushing may justly be proud of its achievements. 

It is hardly necessary to state, in view of what 
has been said already, that Flushing is eminently 
a residence town. It has always been. When the 
place was hardly five years old, in 1649, a visitor 
described it as a handsome village. The claim 
made by the inhabitants that it is really not a 
village but a large park or garden is to some ex- 
tent justified. It has miles and miles of macad- 
amized streets, well lighted with electricity and 
bordered by the most beautiful rows of trees. 
There are streets here, like parts of Broadway 
and Bowne Avenue, which delight the lover of 
nature and the man who is able to appreciate 
beauty. They are lined with fine residences 
ranging from the modest but attractive and well 
kept cottage to palatial mansions. Good roads, 
affording charming drives, lead to all the neigh- 
boring villages and many places of interest. All 
in all. Flushing is indeed a very superior place. 

We have several times mentioned the fact that 
Flushing contains a comparatively large number 
of good schools. They are all housed in modern 
buildings which are not only convenient and 
practical, but also very pretty. In fact, the prob- 
lem seems to have been solved here with success, 
how a schoolhouse can be thoroughly adapted 
to its purpose and at the same time charmingly 
beautiful. The Flushing High School is the only 
building where the architect could not give free 
vent to his fancies, for the very simple reason 
that it was necessary from time to time to erect 
additions to the structures already in existence. 
In doing this, new ideas were made use of, and 
the building, or rather the group of buildings, in 
which the High School is now housed, represents 
different styles, the last one erected showing the 
most modern type of construction as used for 
educational purposes. Flushing is justly proud 
of this institution, for the village was the first 
one in the old county of Queens to establish a 
high school, and for twenty years remained the 



only one. The graduates number annually about 
two hundred. There are also a number of private 
schools of more than ordinary importance lo- 
cated here. Among them are the Flushing Sem- 
inary for young ladies, the Flushing Institute 
for boys, Kyle's Military Academy, and St. Jo- 
seph's Academy. 

The village contains a large number of 
churches. We have already spoken of the old 
Friends' meeting-house. St. George's is a large 
and striking edifice, and so is the Congregational 
Church. St. Michael's is also much beyond the 
ordinary village church, and the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is simple in outline but quite im- 
posing. The Reformed Church and the First 
Baptist Church are very good examples of archi- 
tecture and worthy of their congregations and 

the surroundings. 
Among the many new settlements that have 




CARNEGIE LIBRARY, ASTORIA 

sprung up in Queens during the last decade Elm- 
hurst is one of the most prominent. It is popu- 
lated by a very superior kind of people and is 
developing rapidly, not alone in regard to the 
number of its inhabitants, but also in reference 
to the character of the buildings and the general 
trend of improvements. Broadway is especially 
beautiful, and the Episcopal Church is a note- 
worthy structure. Another colony that should 
not be overlooked is Woodmere, which with Law- 
rence is in the region better known from the fact 
that the Rockaways adjoin it. Here are the 
homes of many rich families who may be classed 
with the residents of Cedarhurst, already men- 
tioned in the course of our narrative. But there 
are also vast stretches of land that are not yet 
built upon, some of which will without doubt be 
soon covered with houses, while others are re- 
served as play and recreation grounds for the 
people. To the former class belongs Creedmoor 
where the rifle ranges for the National Guard 
are located. The time is near when this beau- 
tiful tract will be opened for settlement, for the 
rapid increase of buildings in the neighborhood 



64 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



bids fair to make rifle practise a dangerous pas- 
time, even if carried on under the most rigid 
supervision and with the greatest carefulness. To 
the other class belongs Forest Park, a very 
beautiful tract of land with hills of considerable 
elevation for this part of the country, and really 
made for park purposes. Most of it is densely 
wooded, and the landscape gardener's art will 
have not much more to do than to use the beau- 
ties that nature has provided, and to add to them 
such touches as will make them more accessible 
and a little more varied. This large park should 
in time be one of the most beautiful within the 
confines of the large city of New York. It com- 
prises five hundred and thirty-six acres and the 
activity of the Park Department has so far been 
confined to keeping the grounds in order, estab- 
lishing a golf links, extending the system of 
macadamized roads and beginning the construc- 
tion of a fence. Shelter and comfort houses have 
also been erected. In connection with the park 
system it may be mentioned here that there is a 
very charming little park in the village of Corona, 
called Linden Park. It consists of a plot of 
ground four hundred by three hundred and thir- 
ty-five feet, and contains a small lake fed by 
springs, and some very fine old shade trees. An 
iron fence has been constructed around this park, 
and an overflow basin of brick and cement built 
at the lake. It is a delightful spot in the sum- 
mer and affords amusement for thousands of 
people in the winter when the lake is frozen over. 
From Forest Park a splendid view may be had 
of Woodhaven, a village of considerable im- 
portance where one of the largest industries of 
Queens is located, the enormous factory of the 
firm of Lalance & Grosjean, makers of enameled 
ware. From the highest points within the park 
one can see a large part of Brooklyn and the 
Atlantic Ocean. 

The building of the Jamaica Club has been 
mentioned incidentally. Queens is rich in clubs 
with splendid buildings, larger or smaller accord- 
ing to the services they are expected to render. 
' There are S number of golf clubs, for instance, 
at Hillside and at Oakland; there is a country 
club at Flushing, and at the shores of Jamaica 
Bay we find innumerable yacht and boat and 
fishing clubs. The most important organizations 
of this kind are the Knickerbocker Yacht Club 
and the Bayside Yacht Club. 

Of the charitable institutions which have not 
been mentioned yet the following are of special 
importance: St. John's Hospital at Long Island 
City is not only a very large institution but also 
well known on account of the superior quality 
of the treatment accorded to the patients. Some 
of the most prominent physicians and surgeons 
of the country have been, and are still, connected 



with this hospital, and it stands very high in the 
esteem of the medical profession. Other institu- 
tions of the kind are the Flushing Hospital, the 
Jamaica as well as St. Mary's Hospital at Ja- 
maica, and the Far Rockaway Hospital at Far 
Rockaway. Of the many smaller hospitals, shel- 
ters, outing camps and other charitable institu- 
tions at the seashore we have already spoken. At 
Hollis is situated a home for the aged erected by 
and under the management of the Odd Fellows. 

Queens is well provided with libraries. There 
are free libraries at Astoria, Elmhurst, College 
Point, Flushing and Far Rockaway. Some of 
the buildings have been erected by the city under 
the Carnegie donation. Others were already in 
existence, as for instance the free library of 
Flushing which is housed in a pretty structure 
of Greek design. 

So large a territory, still in the process of evo- 
lution from a conglomeration of different and 
widely distant settlements with varied aims and 
purposes into a homogeneous part of a large city, 
cannot be described minutely. It was necessary 
to confine ourselves to the more salient points 
and to instances which will permit the reader, 
with the help of the imagination, of which not 
very much is asked, to form a general impression. 
If we have succeeded in showing that the Bor- 
ough of Queens is a large and important part 
of the city, that it contains not only a number 
of different natural features but also a population 
which is of somewhat varied character insofar 
as the different elements have slightly different 
views of the ways in which happiness and con- 
tentment can be reached, we have done our duty. 
For just as the human body can only be healthy 
and strong if all the different organs execute 
their different functions in their own way, never 
out of harmony with each other and jointly 
working for the welfare and the benefit of the 
whole, but still, to some extent, if not independ- 
ent of each other, at least striving each for the 
one result to whose accomplishment they are as- 
signed, so the manifold groups of the inhabi- 
tants of a city or any community should not be 
entirely alike. No one man can encompass all 
the ambition, all the wisdom and all the force 
that is necessary to achieve uninterrupted prog- 
ress. The advancement of the human race can- 
not be secured with military precision, nor in the 
way in which a business or a factory, be it ever 
so large, is managed. When we, as so frequently 
happens, demand that the affairs of a city or a 
village shall be managed in a businesslike viray, 
we are right, but when we insist that men trained 
in a business life only should be entrusted with 
public ofiice, we are wrong. For whatever a 
business may be, its main object is always to 
provide for immediate returns, and it always 




DEBEVOISE AVENUE SCHOOL IN EAST RIVER HEIGHTS 

THIS IS THE LARGEST SCHOOL IN LONG ISLAND CITY, 

THE CONTRACT PRICE BEING $392,000. 




FLUSHING HIGH SCHOOL 





fr 
§5 


1^! Si i Jiii:- vm" Wk 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 22 




SCHOOL ON VAN ALST AVENUE, 
ONE BLOCK FROM EAST RIVER HEIGHTS 




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CARNEGIE LIBRARY. RICHMOND HILL 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



67 



reckons with facts that are either visible or may 
be calculated with a large measure of probability. 
In fact, it is the aim of the good business man 
to eliminate the probability as much as it is in 
his power, and to work with certainties only. This 
he cannot do, but he aspires at least to increase 
the probable profit he expects to secure from 
every transaction or enterprise, if the certainty 
of success is diminished by one reason or another. 
In other words : he does not embark in an en- 
terprise unless he feels confident that the profit 
will be in the right proportion to the risk he has 
to take. Now, a community of many people, in- 
dependent of each other except in that they 
must to a certain extent consider the wishes of 
each other, is entirely different and presents dif- 
ferent problems. While the Army, or a factory, 
or a business office will accomplish the best re- 
sults if all the members, be they soldiers or 
working men or clerks, work after the same sys- 
tem and in the same manner, always relying on 
each other's assistance and knowing that every 
one aims for exactly the same results, in a com- 
munity of people, residing together but being oc- 
cupied in entirely different and greatly varied 
lines, the fullest sway should be given to in- 
dividuality. No community can grow, develop 
and progress if it is not possible to bring out in 
the strongest way all the different ideas that arise 
in man's mind. This is the reason why cities 
grow quicker if left to themselves and not ruled 
by outside influences, as the despotic will of a 
ruler or the ignorance of legislators who know 
nothing of the conditions governing them. The 
more varied the interests are, the more ideas will 
spring up that work for progress. If all the in- 
habitants are entirely alike in customs and habits, 
in aims and purposes, in their views of life and 
happiness, as is the case in the communistic col- 
onies, development beyond a certain point be- 
comes impossible. For such communistic colonies 
are the creations of one mind that may be su- 
perior but still remains the mind of one man, and 
is therefore not varied enough to permit of the 
development of the others who become used to 
following cast iron rules without questioning 
their value and worth. Variety of ideas, of aims, 
of the views of life, of everything that makes for 
advancement beyond the necessity of procuring, a 
bare sufficiency, is the prime requisite for all 
progress. A nation that is composed of many dif- 
ferent elements will always advance more rapidly 
than one in which only one element exists. All 
the great nations of the world have originated 
from a mixture of different races. The English 
people is composed of Celts, Normans, Romans 
and Anglo-Saxons ; the Germans of several dif- 
ferent Teutonic races with a strong admixture of 
Slavs, and so forth. It is hardly necessary to 



mention the American people, for everybody can 
to this day follow the way in which it has orig- 
inated by simply watching the new arrivals. It 
is of course imperative that the different elements 
have some things in common, that they are not too 
different and will not refuse to blend. This is 
of the greatest importance, for the mixture of 
different races without an underlying common 
basis for successful amalgamation, will produce a 
bastard race unfit for progress and of little value. 
Witness the mixture of the Spanish with the ne- 
gro and the Indian on some of the West Indian 
Islands and in some Central and South Ameri- 
can republics! The different elements must be 
homogeneous, not alike, but able to Dlend, not 
like oil and water, but like different metals which, 
when mixed, produce a new amalgam not only 
as good as the different parts but showing all the 
good qualities of every one of them. 

The Borough of Queens has been fortunate in 
being settled almost simultaneously at different 
points by different classes of people. In this way 
every possible kind of development has been 
started according to what the people of every 
locality thought best and most important. At the 
same time local pride and local independence were 
fostered and public spirit developed because the 
mhabitants of each village and settlement saw the 
results of their enterprise. In a very large city 
the average citizen is apt to neglect his public 
duties because the administration is so complica- 
ted and the interests as well as the problems it has 
to deal with are so vast that it is difficult to fol- 
low them without making a careful study of all 
conditions entering into their consideration, which 
requires more time and labor than is at the dis- 
posal of the ordinary man. In smaller places the 
matter is simpler, and almost everybody can and 
does take part in the discharge of public affairs. 
City people frequently ridicule the ardor with 
which campaigns are fought out in villages where 
the burning question of the day is the expenditure 
of a few hundred dollars, but it- is an indisputable 
fact that the smaller communities are far ahead 
of the large cities in the interest they take in the 
administration of public affairs. The fact that 
small matters are treated with an expenditure of 
energy that appears entirely out of proportion and 
sometimes even ridiculous has very little bearing 
on the matter. The point is that every citizen 
should at all times bring his mind to bear upon 
the question how the welfare of the community can 
best be served, and if this is done in small things 
it will also be done in connection with large mat- 
ters. Where it is not the case, the citizens abdi- 
cate the power that has been given to them by our 
American institutions, and permit other and sel- 
fish interests to govern them and to administer 
the affairs of the community not in the interest 



68 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



of the inhabitants but for their own advantage and 
profit. Civic pride can only exist where every citi- 
zen knows that he is taking part in the govern- 
ment, where he feels that his wishes are re- 
spected and that nothing of importance is done 
without his consent, or at least without consult- 
ing his wishes and respecting them as far as is 
possible when different opinions prevail. The 
smaller communities form the schools in which 
our population learns the art of self-government 
which is by no means as easy and as much a 
matter of course as is sometimes believed. Self- 
government means nothing if it is only an in- 
stitution on paper; it is valuable only if it is 
fully and freely exercised. And this is done to 
the largest degree in the smaller localities, in 
short in just such settlements as existed in 
Queens before consolidation. 

When the borough became part and parcel of 
the big cit}', the different elements and interests 
had to be harmonized and united. This work has 
now been going on for years. It is by no means 
completed as yet, and this is natural, for even 
from our short description of the territory in- 
cluded in the borough it will be seen that widely 
diverging interests must exist, that some of the 
settlements are far ahead of the others, in devel- 
opment, in age, in tradition, in material condi- 
tion, in the rate of progress and in the character 
of the inhabitants. The process of harmonizing 
all these, of equalizing them to a certain extent, 
should be delayed as much as possiWe. If it is 
hurried, if existing conditions are not observed 
and carefully regarded, dangers will arise. Local 



pride, so efficient a factor in the progress of the 
different parts, may be effaced, and the spirit of 
self-reliance be dampened if not killed entirely. 
It will be readily seen that the administration of 
a borough like that of Queens requires not only 
considerable administrative talent but also great 
skill and tact. Harmony cannot be brought about 
by force and by a ruthless disregard for condi- 
tions that have prevailed for centuries, even if it 
may appear sometimes that they should be left 
out of consideration. It will be best to let the 
different communities, many of which are still 
separated from each other by large tracts of un- 
settled lands, work out their destinies according 
to local wishes and desires. In this way the 
requisite amalgamation will arrive slowly and 
gradually, without destroying what is so valua- 
ble and important, until finally complete amalga- 
mation has been accomplished, for the benefit 
of the borough and the larger city as well as of 
the small localities and the inhabitants themselves. 
And Queens is on the right way and will reach 
ultimate success, though it has many obstacles 
to overcome, of which one of the most difficult, 
paradoxical as it may seem, is the rapid develop- 
ment and growth in population. For an increase 
in the number of houses and inhabitants means 
enormous expenditures for streets, sewers, water 
mains and the like, and the fact that so many dis- 
tricts need the same improvements at the same 
time, and that they are in many instances so far 
apart, makes it doubly difficult to provide for all 
of them at once. 




THE ROCKY SHORE, CORONA 




THE OLD LONG ISLAND CITY HIGH SCHOOL^ ASTORIA 




ASTORIA HOSPITAL 




CHURCH ON WOOLSEY STREET, 

TWO BLOCKS FROM EAST RIVER HEIGHTS 

ASTORIA 





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CATHOLIC CHURCH, ASTORIA 



MEN OF MARK 

PART IV 




^E have now learned how the 
Borough of Queens was foun- 
ded, what it had to pass 
through in the earlier times 
of its history, and we have 
also seen how it looks to-day. 
We have, from the facts here 
recounted, been able to glance at its probable 
future, and it remains for us to recall to mind 
some of the men who were prominent in the 
past and who contributed largely to its growth. 
The only signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence who was identified with Queens was 
Francis Lewis. Born in 1713 at Landaff in Wales 
he entered mercantile life at an early age, and 
came to Philadelphia in 1735 where he engaged in 
business. Two years later he came to New York 
and became one of the great ship owners of the 
time, whose successful ventures were the real 
cause of Great Britain's jealousy of the Amer- 
ican colonies. Led by his business interests to 
travel, he visited Russia and other countries of 
Europe, and was twice shipwrecked on the coast 
of Ireland. As a supply agent for the British Ar- 
my he was taken prisoner at Fort Oswego when 
it was surprised by Montcalm, was carried to 
Montreal and from there to France. After hav- 
ing regained his freedom he returned to New 
York to find that the conflict between his mother 
country and that of his adoption was in a fair 
way to take a serious turn, and had indeed already 
become grave. As he was heartily in sympathy 
with the movement for the liberation of the col- 
onies, he joined in the efforts which culminated 
in the Revolution, and was, in 1775, unanimously 
elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, 
where his business knowledge, his experience, his 
executive ability and his familiarity with com- 
mercial and financial matters made him a very 
valuable member. At the next session he joined 
his fellow patriots in signing the paper that has 
become sacred to every American, and pledging 
"his life, his fortune and his sacred honor" to the 
maintenance of the principles enunciated in the 
Declaration of Independence. Some time before 
this event he had purchased a country-seat at 
Whitestone, and there he removed his family in 
1776 because New York City was rapidly becom- 
ing a hotbed of Toryism and the time did not 
seem far distant when it would fall into the hands 



of the British Army. Lewis devoted himself 
actively to the performance of the very im- 
portant duties with which he had been entrusted 
by Congress. One part of these consisted in 
the importation of military stores. He was so 
eager in his desire to assist the movement in 
which he had embarked that he did not hesi- 
tate to use his own fortune for the purchase of 
arms and ammunition when Congress either de- 
layed the appropriation of the money or was un- 
able to raise it. He expended large sums of 
money in this way, and was never repaid. His 
family had hardly been settled at Whitestone 
when his house was visited, in the fall of 1776, 
by a body of British light cavalry, who plundered 
the dwelling, entirely destroyed a large and very 
valuable library and carried Mrs. Lewis away as 
a prisoner. She was detained for several months 
without a change of clothing and not even being 
provided with a bed to sleep on. Through the 
influence of George Washington her release was 
finally secured, but she was so much weakened 
by the shock and the privations she had under- 
gone that her health was never restored, and 
she died soon after her return to her husband, 
one of the many victims of the brutalities with 
which the war was carried on by the British. 
Francis Lewis remained a resident of Queens 
until 1796 when he removed to New York, where 
he died in 1803 at the ripe old age of ninety 
years. 

Another old resident who deserves mention 
was Wynant Van Zandt, born in New York in 
1767, and in later life one of the most prominent 
merchants of the big city. He served as an 
alderman of the First Ward from 1802 to 1806, 
and as a member of the committee under whose 
supervision the present City Hall was erected, 
protested most vigorously against the use of 
brownstone for the rear wall of the structure. It 
is well known that the employment of the 
cheaper material was recommended because the 
City Hall was located so far up-town that, as the 
Aldermen expressed it, nobody would ever have 
occasion to look at the rear of the building, and 
it would therefore make no difference wBat color 
it had. Mr. Van Zandt was of a very different 
opinion ; he prophesied that the city would soon 
extend far beyond the City Hall, and he ridi- 
culed the parsimony of the men who wanted to 



71 



72 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



save a few dollars and thereby spoil the perfec- 
tion and the harmonious beauty of the important 
edifice about to be erected. He did not succeed, 
the short-sighted policy was adopted, and since 
generations have laughed at the absurd notions 
of the city fathers of the early years of the last 
century. Alderman Van Zandt was considered, 
in consequence of the stand he had taken, as a 
man of wild and erratic ideas, but he succeeded 
later on in persuading his colleagues that Canal 
Street, which was about to be laid out, should 
be made one hundred feet wide instead of sixty 
feet as had been proposed. The city of New 
York is therefore indebted to him for one of the 
most important and necessary thoroughfares it 
possesses. Mr. Van Zandt purchased the Weeks 
farm at Little Neck in 1813, and lived there until 
his death. 

One of the oldest families in Queens are the 
Bloodgoods. Francis Bloctgoct, from whom the 
family descends, which has changed the name, 
was one of the first settlers of Flushing. In 
1674 he was recognized by the Dutch authorities 
as "chief of the inhabitants of the Dutch nation 
residing in the villages of Vlissingen, Heems- 
tede, Rudsdorp and Middleborg," and was made 
their military commander, being ordered to march 
with them toward the city should a hostile fleet 
appear in the Sound. Previous to this he had 
already been appointed a magistrate, and he 
served also as a member of the privy council 
which advised with the governor on the surren- 
der of the territory to the English. In addition 
he acted as one of the commissioners who visited 
the Swedish settlement on the Delaware which 
was later destroyed by the Dutch under Stuyve- 
sant with an exhibition of cruelty quite uncalled 
for, because it had become a dangerous rival 
in the fur trade. Of the immediate descendants 
of Francis Bloctgoct or Bloodgood nothing is 
known with any degree of accuracy, but one of 
his grandsons, Abraham, became a prominent 
merchant in Albany, where he served for years 
as councilman, was a member of the convention 
that accepted the Constitution of the United 
States on behalf of the state of New York, and 
one of the ten men who founded the Democratic 
party of New York State in the old Vanden 
Heyden house at Albany. The youngest of his 
four sons, Joseph, studied medicine and was ap- 
pointed a trustee of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in New York City in 1811. A large 
number of prominent residents of Flushing in- 
vited him to settle there, which he did. He was 
very successful in his practise and generally ad- 
mired as a public spirited citizen. He died in 
1851, at the age of sixty-seven, and left twelve 
children. 

The Lawrence family has already been men- 



tioned, but a few more words should be said 
concerning it. The members of this family trace 
their descent back to the ancient Romans, but the 
first one authoritatively mentioned in the books 
of heraldry was Sir Robert Lawrence of Ashton 
Hall, who in 11 19 placed the banner of the Holy 
Cross upon the battlements of St. Jean d'Acre, 
and was knighted for his gallantry by Richard 
Coeur-de-Lion. The coat of arms given to him 
on that occasion was used by the Lawrence fam- 
ily as a seal for many years in America. Three 
brothers of the Lawrence familj' came to Amer- 
ica about 1643, William, John and Thomas. The 
first two were among the patentees recognized by 
Governor Kieft in 1645 when he regulated the 
affairs of the village of Flushing. John removed 
to New York, where he became an alderman, 
mayor, justice of the Supreme Court, and mem- 
ber of His Majesty's council. William became 
one of the largest landed proprietors in Flushing, 
and settled at Tew's Neck, later called Law- 
rence's, and now College Point. He acted as a 
magistrate and a leader of the militia. His sec- 
ond wife was a noteworthy woman. She was 
Miss Elizabeth Smith when she married William 
Lawrence, and after his death in 1680 she mar- 
ried Sir Philip Carteret, governor of New Jer- 
sey. While her husband was absent in Europe, 
she administered the affairs of the colony, and 
many important acts were, according to the doc- 
uments, "passed under the administration of Lady 
Elizabeth Carteret." The city of Elizabeth in 
New Jersey is called after her. 

The Prince family deserves mention because 
their first representatives on Long Island were 
the founders of the first large nurseries. They 
were Samuel and Robert Prince, the sons of one 
John Prince who had come to America about 1663 
and had settled in New England. The two sons 
came to Long Island after they had grown to 
manhood, married and had many children. Sam- 
uel settled on Great Neck, and established the 
nurseries which were to become famous, about 
the year 1725 at Great Neck. His brother Robert 
lived at Flushing, where he started nurseries a 
few years later, and it seems that the two estab- 
lishments were soon after combined. Robert 
Prince occupied a house on Lawrence Street just 
northeast of the "Effingham Lawrence" house. 
The old mansion was a building of considerable 
pretense and not taken down until 1863. It was 
at this house that the Duke of Clarence, after- 
ward King William IV of England, was received 
when he visited the town, and here also General 
Washington and his suite were entertained in 
1789. In Washington's journal, where he entered 
a detailed account of the happenings of each and 
every day, we find the following entry under date 
of October 10, 1789: "I set off from New York 




HILLSIDE AVENUE, JAMAICA 




SHINNECOCK DEMOCRATIC CLUB HOUSE, FLUSHING 




FLUSHING BRIDGE 




ST. JOSEPH S ORPHANAGE, FLUSHING 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



75 



about nine o'clock, in my barge, to visit Mr. 
Prince's fruit gardens and shrubberies at Flush- 
ing. The vice-president, governor, Mr. Izard, 
Colonel Smith and Major Jacobs accompanied 
me." At this house another memorable incident 
happened. In 1823 a bust of Linnaeus was 
crowned here by De Witt Clinton during a mem- 
orable meeting of eminent American and foreign 
scientists. In 1793 William Prince, a grandson of 
Robert, purchased eighty acres of land in Flush- 
ing, lying between the present railroad line on 
the west and Farrington Street on the east, and 
established a nursery there, which he called the 
"Linnaean Nurseries," while his brother Ben- 
jamin remained on the old homestead and carried 
on his business under the name of the "Old Amer- 
ican Nursery." The two establishments were 
combined a few years later. 

In the course of our description of notable 
buildings in Queens we have mentioned the Gov- 
ernor King mansion at Jamaica, and a few words 
must be said about the family of the man who 
lived in that house. His father was Rufus King, 
born at Scarborough, Me., in 17SS, who, almost 
immediately after being admitted to the Bar, was 
elected a member of the General Court of Leg- 
islature of the state of Massachusetts where he 
soon became prominent by successfully advocat- 
ing, against a powerful opposition, the granting of 
an impost of five per cent to the Congress as 
indispensable to the common safety and the effi- 
ciency of the confederation. In 1784 he was 
chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, 
then sitting at Trenton. There he proposed a 
resolution the purport of which was the virtual 
and actual abolition of slavery. The resolution 
did not pass but it was later adopted word for 
word in the famous ordinance for the North- 
west Territory which secured the freedom from 
slavery for the new states formed north of Ma- 
son's and Dixon's line. Rufus King was a mem- 
ber of the federal convention which adopted the 
Constitution and also of the committee appointed 
to "revise the style of and arrange the articles." 
After serving in the United States Senate for 
nearly two terms he was appointed ambassador 
to the court of Great Britain, having declined the 
office of secretary of state, which had been made 
vacant by the resignation of Edmund Randolph. 
He remained in London for eight years, and was 
recalled, at his own request, by Thomas Jefferson 
in 1804. For nearly nine years he lived on his 
farm at Jamaica far from the madding crowd, 
but when the war with Great Britain had broken 
out and the nation was in need of strong men, he 
accepted another election to the United States 
Senate. His first speech was directed against 
the cowardly proposal to remove the seat of gov- 
ernment to some inland city because the British 



had destroyed the capitol at Washington. In 
1819 he was again elected to the Senate, in spite 
of the fact that the majority of the Legislature 
was not of his party, and it is a memorable fact 
that this man was twice made a senator of the 
United States by his political opponents. It 
speaks volumes for his greatness and the strength 
of his character that this was possible, but it 
also shows how much common sense and tolera- 
tion the members of the Legislature possessed, 
for they gave him the highest honor they could 
bestow because they knew him to be the man 
best fitted to represent the state, and they did 
not consider it necessary to turn him down and 
elect a weaker man in his stead because he was 
not in accord with them as far as general prin- 
ciples of party politics were concerned. It was a 
time when patriotism could still overcome party 




THE WOODHULL MONUMENT AT HOLLIS 

exigencies. Rufus King earnestly opposed the 
admission of Missouri as a state because the pro- 
posed constitution permitted the holding of slaves. 
The argument made by him on that occasion has 
furnished the foundation for almost all subse- 
quent arguments against slavery. He also op- 
posed strongly the compromise proposed by Hen- 
ry Clay which was intended to satisfy both par- 
ties, and voted against it when it was passed. In 
1825 he retired after having served four terms 
in the Senate. Once more he followed the call 
of his country when John Quincy Adams insisted 
that he alone could settle the questions pending 
between the United States and Great Britain, and 
accepted the appointment as ambassador to the 
Court of St. James, but his health did not per- 
mit him to stay long. He resigned in 1827 and 
passed the remainder of his life partly on his 
farm at Jamaica and partly in New York City. 
The eldest son of Rufus King, John Alsop, 
was born in New York in 1788. During his 
father's residence in England as ambassador of 
the United States he was placed first in an Eng- 
lish school and later in a famous institution of 
learning at Paris. He thus received a very fine 
education, both in the classics and in modern sci- 
ences and languages. After his return from 



76 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



Europe he studied law, and took a commission 
as a lieutenant of Hussars when the War of 1812 
broke out. The Kings were opposed to the war 
but held that there remained but one duty for 
American citizens after hostilities had com- 
menced, namely, to sustain the country. Upon the 
return of peace he resigned his commission and 
removed to a farm at Jamaica near to the home- 
stead of his father. John A. King was not 
wealthy, and he spent the next ten years of his 
life in agricultural pursuits, rising early and doing 
all the work that the farm required, as sowing, 
plowing, reaping, mending fences and repairing 
buildings. In this way he was enabled to live in 
comfort. He was also a great hunter and loved 
to go after the game at that time abupdant on 
Long Island, when the work was done. A lover 
of fine cattle and of good horses, he attended 
most of the races at the Union course, a few 
miles from his home, and was for many years 
the president of the Jockey Club. Mr. King had 
sufficient time, however, to take a deep interest 
in the affairs of the state, as it indeed befitted 
a man of his breeding and education, and he 
was repeatedly elected to the Assembly, where he, 
with many of his friends of the Federal party, 
opposed the ambitious plans of Governor Clinton, 
assisting him, however, with great energy in the 
efforts to bring about the construction of the 
Erie Canal. After the adoption of the new Con- 
stitution he was elected to the Federal Senate in 
1824, but resigned his seat in order to accompany 
his father to England as secretary to the lega- 
tion, when the latter was sent to England by 
John Quincy Adams. After the father had been 
compelled to return, the son remained for some 
time as charge d'affaires; When his father died, 
he bought from his brother the fine old mansion 
at Jamaica, where he continued to reside until his 
death. He was again elected to the Assembly and 
later to Congress where he earnestly and per- 
sistently opposed the passage of the compromise 
measures molded by Henry Clay, and the fugi- 
tive slave law, for John A. King was as uncom- 
promising an opponent of slavery as his father 
had been. As a delegate to the national conven- 
tion of 1856 he was instrum.ental in bringing 
about the nomination of General Fremont, and 
he was chairman of the Whig convention of New 
York, at Syracuse, which fused with the Re- 
publican convention and thus brought about a 
union between the Whigs and the independent 
Democrats, and formed the Republican party. He 
was the logical candidate of the new party for 
the office of governor of the state, was nominated 
and elected. With characteristic courage and de- 
termination he said, in his first message, that he 
understood his election to mean that the people 
of the state of New York had declared as "their 



deliberate and irreversible decree that so far as 
the state of New York is concerned there shall 
be henceforth no extension of slavery in the 
territories of the United States," and he added : 
"This conclusion" I "mOst unreservedly adopt, and 
am prepared to abide by it at all times, under all 
circumstances, and in every emergency." After 
his term as governor, during which he discharged 
his duties with sagacity and firmness, Mr. King 
retired to his farm and devoted the rest of his 
life to peaceful pursuits. He took great interest 
in the workings of the Queens County Agricul- 
tural Society, and was one of the founders and 
afterward president of the New York State Ag- 
ricultural Society. His death was characteristic 
of the man. Although in his eightieth year and 
in feeble health, he could not resist the urgent 
request to address the young men of Jamaica on 
Independence Day in 1867. While exhorting his 
audience never to waver in their support of the 
country and the flag around which they had ral- 
lied, he was seized with sudden faintness and 
sank into the arms of a friend behind him. He 
was carried to his house where he lingered for 
a few days and died three days later peacefully 
and surrounded by his family. 

Another family that has given to Queens a good 
many useful and prominent citizens came from 
France. The de Beauvois, or as the name was 
written later on, the Debevoises, were French 
Protestants or Huguenots, and had fled to the 
city of Leyden in the Netherlands when the per- 
secutions of the Protestants began in France. 
From there the founder of the family in Amer- 
ica, Carel de Beauvois, came to New Amsterdam 
in 1659, accompanied by his wife and three chil- 
dren. He had received a superior education and 
soon found emploj'ment as teacher. In 1661 he 
became "chorister, reader and schoolmaster" at 
a salary of twenty-five guilders and free house 
rent. Later on he served as public secretary or 
town clerk. Of his descendants many have held 
high public office, and intermarried with most of 
the old families who were among the first set- 
tlers of the localit}'. 

The Alsop family was also among the early 
settlers. Richard Alsop, the first of the name to 
locate here, came at the request of his uncle, one 
Thomas Wandell, who was said to have left 
England because he had become involved in a 
quarrel with Oliver Cromwell, though this re- 
port is doubtful, for it is known that Wandell 
was living at Mespat Kills in 1648, or before 
Charles I was put to death. He had secured a 
considerable tract of land by patents and pur- 
chase which he left to his nephew, Richard Al- 
sop. The family he founded became extinct in 
1837 when the last of the name died without issue. 

One of the most important personages in the 




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HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



79 



early history of Newtown was Captain Richard 
Betts whose services are mentioned on nearly 
every page of the records for ahnost fifty years. 
He took a prominent part in the revolution of 
1663, for he was a bitter opponent of Governor 
Stuyvesant and administered a severe blow to 
him by purchasing from the Indians the land the 
settlers at Newtown had planted, and for which 
Stuyvesant refused to give them patents. After 
the conquest of New Netherland by the English 
Betts was a member of the first provincial as- 
sembly which met at Hempstead. In 1678 he 
was appointed high sheriff of the county of 
Yorkshire upon Long Island. For a long series 
of years the captain was a magistrate, and more 
than once a member of the High Court of As- 
size, then the supreme power in the province. He 
became an extensive landholder at the English 
Kills and lived in a house that for centuries after 
his death was known as the old Betts house. It 
is told of him that in his one hundredth year he 
dug his own grave within sight of his bedroom 
window. 

The Moore family of Newtown is descended 
from the Rev. John Moore, of whose origin little 
is known though he is supposed to have been an 
Englishman. He was the first minister of the 
town, and an Independent. He was never auth- 
orized to administer the sacraments but he 
preached to the people of Newtown until he died 
in 1657. He had been instrumental in bringing 
about the purchase of the lands, on which the 
first comers had settled, from the Indians, and 
thirty years after his death the town gave eighty 
acres to his children in recognition of his ser- 
vices. The Moore house on the shell road is well 
preserved and perfectly habitable after the lapse 
of over two centuries. The massive hall door 
composed of two sections of solicl oak, with its 
enormous hinges and bolts and the ponderous 
brass knocker, has been admired by many thou- 
sands. 

Jonathan Fish, who joineJ the settlement of 
Middleburg or Newtown in 1659, was the progen- 
itor of the Fish family of Newtown. His grand- 
son, also named Jonathan, built the famous "Cor- 
ner House" at the corner of the present Grand 
Street and Hoffmann Boulevard. He died in 
1723, and his son Samuel kept the old house as 
an inn. It became famous during the French 
war when many of the unfortunate farmers of 
Nova Scotia, who had been driven from home on 
account of their loyalty, found refuge here. The 
inn also was a meeting place for the French 
officers who were paroled in the custody of the 
families living in the neighborhood. Samuel's 
grandson Nicholas entered the American Army 
at the outbreak of the Revolution as major, and 
retired at the end of the war with the rank of 



lieutenant-colonel. He participated in the battle 
of Long Island, was wounded at Monmouth, and 
took part in the operations which ended with the 
surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, as well as 
in the siege of Yorktown. His wife was a 
daughter of Petrus Stuyvesant, and one of their 
children was Hamilton Fish, formerly governor 
of the state of New York, United States sena- 
tor, and secretary of state under President Grant. 
The old corner house reached its greatest im- 
portance during the Revolutionary War. From 
the day in August, 1776, when General Howe dis- 
mounted in front of its door and took up quar- 
ters there, until another day in September, 1783, 
when a regiment of Hessian Hussars passed the 
building on its last march through the village 
of Newtown on its way to the ship that was 
to take it back to Europe, the famous inn was 
never without a full complement of English sol- 
diers as guests. 

A history of the borough of Queens could not 
be considered complete without mentioning the 
part William Steinway has played in its develop- 
ment. His name has been referred to before, 
but something more has to be said. It is proba- 
bly known to most readers of this sketch that 
Mr. Steinway 's father was a prosperous manu- 
facturer of pianos in Germany when the revolu- 
tion of 1848 and other political changes as good 
as destroyed his business, inducing him, although 
arrived at the ripe age of fifty-three years,, to 
emigrate to America with his family, in order to 
mend his fortunes. He began in a small and 
cautious way and prospered beyond all expec- 
tations. The house he . founded on this side 
of the Atlantic soon became one of the most im- 
portant ones in the piano industry. This is well 
known, but must be stated as an introduction. 
The name of Steinway became important for 
Queens when the son of the first Steinway, Will- 
iam, induced his firm to erect a factory on Long 
Island. Most, if not all, the instruments the firm 
sold were up to about 1870 manufactured at its 
plant in New York, between Lexington and 
Fourth Avenues and Fifty-second and Fifty- 
third Streets. What caused the managers of the 
business to look for other quarters and why they 
selected Astoria, can best be told in the words 
of William Steinway himself who explained the 
situation shortly before his death as follows : 
"For several years previous to 1870 we had 
been looking for a plot of land away from the 
city, and yet within easy access of it, for the 
erection of an additional factory rendered neces- 
sary by the extension of our business. There 
were two reasons why we sought a place outside 
the city. In the first place, we wished to escape 
the machinations of the anarchists and socialists, 
who even at that time were continually breeding 



80 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



discontent among our working men and inciting 
them to strike. They seemed to make us a tar- 
get for their attacks, and we felt that if we could 
withdraw our workmen from contact with these 
people, and the other temptations of life in the 
tenement districts, they would be more content 
and their life would be a happier one. Then 
there was a growing demand for more room to 
extend our facilities. The Fourth Avenue fac- 
tory was inadequate for our wants, and we 
needed in addition shipping facilities near the 
water, and a basin in which logs could be stored 
in water to keep them from cracking. We also 
needed a large space for a lumber yard, a steam 
sawmill and a foundrj', and many, many other 
important adjuncts to our factory facilities. After 
looking about for several years, we found the 
ideal place at the spot now known as Steinway. 
At that time it was a beautiful garden spot, sur- 




BRYANT HIGH SCHOOL, DUTCH KILLS 

rounded by waste lands and vacant lots. It was 
partly wooded, and on a bluff stood the hand- 
some mansion of Benjamin F. Pike, the well 
known optician. This property gave us upward 
of half a mile of water-front, a navigable canal, 
and plenty of room for our own foundry. Of 
course we had to create means and facilities for 
reaching the place quickly, which occasioned a 
great outlay of money, and while difficulties had 
to be surmounted, the project has proved a great 
success. It is the geographical center of Greater 
New York. It is nearer to the city than Harlem, 
as it is only five miles from City Hall. The whole 
matter has had an ideal result, the relations be- 
tween employer and employed are cordial in 
the extreme, and as an indication of how the 
latter have prospered, no less than sixty per cent 
of the men emloyed in Steinway & Sons' factory 
own their own houses, while some of them own 
two and more houses." 

As has been mentioned before, Mr. William 
Steinway did not stop when he erected the fac- 
tory and built a few houses for the working 



men. That has been done by so many manufac- 
turers that it would hardly be worthy of ex- 
tended and repeated mention. It was his ambi- 
tion to make a model city of Steinwaj', and for 
this purpose he labored early and late, night and 
day. Neither did he put the factory and the 
workmen's houses down in the middle of terri- 
tory far away from the cit\', and then left the 
residents to themselves and to their work. On 
the contrary, he never for a moment forgot that 
the first and direst need of the new settlement 
was better transportation facilities affording quick 
and frequent connection with Manhattan. He 
lived among his employes for many j'ears, not 
only because the spot was very beautiful, but 
also that he might thoroughly understand what 
had to be done to make the village a place agree- 
able to live in. When the companies owning the 
surface car lines did not provide sufficient service, 
he bought them out, and he was the first, as has 
been mentioned, to conceive the idea of con- 
structing a tunnel under the East River. It is 
a fact that he sank an immense amount of 
money in the unintermitting effort to make Stein- 
way what in his mind it should be, and he held 
on with determined tenacity when almost every 
one of his friends advised him to give up his 
plans, and when many laughed at him for ex- 
posing himself to ruin. Time has completely 
vindicated him and proved the soundness of his 
judgment, although there was a period when it 
really looked as if he had taken too large a load 
upon his shoulders. The Borough of Queens 
owes a heavy debt of gratitude to the late Will- 
iam Steinwaj-. His case is quite different from 
that of the earlier settlers. They did indeed 
join their fate with that of the land they either 
took up under patents or purchased from the 
Indians, but they had not very much to lose, and 
they had certainly no idea whatsoever of the 
real value of their work for future generations. 
None of them could foresee that the fields upon 
which the}- worked would once be covered with 
dwellings, stores and factories, and that the land, 
which in return for their untiring industry pro- 
\ided them with a living and not much more, 
would make the possessor who was wise enough 
to retain it rich be3-ond the dreams of avarice. 
And not knowing this, none of them risked very 
much for the possession of the soil which they 
tilled, but they all did not hesitate to part with 
it when chance offered or when the desire to 
wander away came over them, or again when they 
believed theft they could secure more and bet- 
ter land for the price vvhich they received for 
the old homestead. With William Steinway it 
was different. He saw what would happen, he 
looked into the future, and he invested all he 
had and could get on the strength of an abound- 




Courtesy of Paris — McDougall Company 
TWO FAMILY HOUSES, TERMINAL HEIGHTS 




Courtesy of Paris — McDougall Company 
KISSENA LAKE AND OUTLET 




•J 
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HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



83 



ing confidence in the correctness of his judgment. 
He knew that his losses would be enormous, that 
the greater part of a fortune amassed by the 
hard and incessant work of two generations might 
be swept away if .events did not turn out as he 
had expected, or if only the turn that meant suc- 
cess arrived a little later than he anticipated. But 
with dogged perseverance and with a cheerful 
optimism that was one of his most charming 
qualities, he stuck to the work he had cut out 
for himself, and he succeeded. That is, the en- 
terprise succeeded, but he did not live to see it. 
This is the truly tragic part of the story of the 
life of the man who seemed to be sunshine itself. 
When he was suddenly stricken down, condi- 
tions did not look very bright. In fact, for sev- 
eral weeks before he was attacked by the dis- 
ease that carried him away almost in a day after 
everybody believed that his recovery was as- 
sured, he knew that it would require his utmost 
efforts to bridge over a period of danger. It 
was done, as indeed he never doubted, but he 
did not live to see it, and he died with the knowl- 
edge that his favorite project, the enterprise in 
which his whole heart was interested, needed 
the most careful attention it had required since 
its inception. For this and many other reasons, 
we repeat, every resident of Queens should re- 
member William Steinway with lasting grati- 
tude. Without him the development of the bor- 
ough would not have been nearly as rapid as it 
has been. 

Of the many veterans of the Civil War who 
went forth from Queens to defend the flag and 
the country. Captain J. Roemer, commanding 
officer of the Hamilton Light Artillery, which 
was recruited at Flushing, deserves especial men- 
tion. The command distinguished itself in many 
of the most important engagements, and its rec- 
ord is replete with deeds of daring and excep- 
tional heroism. One instance will show of what 
stuflf the battery and its gallant commander were 
made. When Burnside's army was driven into 
Knoxville by General Longstreet, and when it 
looked as if the rebels would surely annihilate 
the Union forces. Captain Roemer's command 
was ordered to defend the key of Burnside's 
position, Fort Sanders. They had been fighting 
for twelve days, under the most terrible priva- 
tions, suffering from the cold and from hunger, 
for provisions ran low and only one quarter of 
a pound of bread was distributed to the men as 
the daily ration. On the twenty-ninth of Novem- 
ber, 1863, Longstreet made a concerted move 
against Fort Sanders, and his troops succeeded 
in climbing upon the ramparts. The gun at 
which Captain Roemer was stationed had fired 
twenty-seven rounds of canister and was loaded 
with the last charge. A Confederate major laid 



his hand upon the gun and shouted : "Stop firing, 
the gun is ours," when the Captain ordered to 
fire and fourteen files of soldiers fell before the 
deadly hail. The enemy was terror stricken and 
either fled or surrendered. The deed was timely, 
for at that moment Sherman's army was coming 
up to relieve Burnside. The siege was over, 
and Longstreet was compelled to withdraw, 
straining every nerve to get beyond striking dis- 
tance of the Union army. The little command 
of less than half a hundred forming the Flush- 
ing battery had saved the day at the most crucial 
moment. When the fight was over and the tired 
captain stood leaning wearily against the caisson 
of the gun that had given the last shot, General 
Burnside rode up, and the following conversa- 
tion ensued : "Good morning. Captain." "Good 
morning. General." "Captain, what made your 
shells explode so this morning?" "Oh, General, 
how should I know?" "What did you say to the 
Sergeant last night?" "I do not remember. Gen- 
eral ; I said much that it is best to forget !" 
"Well, I remember, and I am proud of it. Cap- 
tain Roemer and his gallant battery will not be 
forgotten." The remarks General Burnside re- 
ferred to were made on the evening before. It 
was then found that but little available ammuni- 
tion was left for the next day's fight, and Cap- 
tain Roemer decided to take recourse to some 
shells that had been buried by the rebels and 
were found by the Union troops when they en- 
tered Knoxville. These shells had corroded so 
that but few of them exploded. Captain Roemer 
had called for volunteers to help him bore out 
the old and useless fuses and insert new ones, 
a work naturally very dangerous. Sergeant 
Kauffmann of the Forty-sixth New York Volun- 
teers consented to assist, saying that if the Cap- 
tain could afford to risk his life there was no 
reason why he could not do the same. They kept 
close under the shelter of the ramparts in order 
to avoid the risk of being struck by flying shot, 
and commenced their perilous task. But a shot 
from the rebel guns struck the rampart just 
above them, covered them with dirt and de- 
stroyed an ammunition box containing twelve 
shells. Fortunately they did not explode. The 
Sergeant said quietly : "Captain, if you keep 
on, you will blow us all up." To this Captain 
Roemer replied savagely : "Never mind, better 
be blown up here than go to Richmond as pris- 
oners." Whereupon the Sergeant answered: 
"Ver}^ well, Captain, just as you say," and the 
work went on until it was completed. That was 
the conversation the commanding general re- 
ferred to. Captain Roemer was brevetted a 
major of volunteers for brave and meritorious 
service upon the field of battle. He was a native 
of Hesse-Darmstadt, and had served in the Ger- 



84 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



man cavalry, but settled in Flushing in 1842. 
The question is frequently asked why the 
neighborhood known as Hunter's Point should 
be called a point as the present formation of the 
shore line does not explain it. It received its 
name from a ledge of rocks vv-hich projected into 
the East River, forming a distinct point which 
could be discerned by vessels passing up and 
down the river, and which became a well known 
landmark. These rocks have, in the progress of 
modern development, all but disappeared ; they 
were either built upon when the ferry was es- 
tablished, or removed by blasting. When the 
neighborhood was first settled, they served as a 
boat landing when the tide in Newtown Creek 
was too low to enter it. The rocky ledge was 
first called Dominie's Hook, then Bennett's 
Point and later Hunter's Point which last name 
has been preserved to this day, although it does 
not fit the place any longer. Captain Peter Praa 
bequeathed the farm to which the hook be- 
longed to the children of his daughter, who had 
married William Bennett, and died before his 
father. The Bennett children lived there, and 
the place was named after them. Mr. Jacob Ben- 
nett, Captain Praa's grandson, died there in 1813 
at the ripe old age of ninety-four years. He left 
the property to his daughter Anne who had mar- 
ried Captain George Hunter, and the name of 
the place was again changed, for the last time. 
Captain George Hunter was a well known ship- 
ping merchant in New York, and of his great 
popularity many stories are told — as, for in- 
stance, that on his wedding day all the ships in 
the harbor threw out their bunting, and the 
wedding was celebrated as if the ruler of the 
country were one of the parties. After he and 
his wife had died the property rernained for a 
few years in the possession of their children, and 
was then purchased by Union College of Sche- 
nectady. Of the children, Jacob Hunter has 
made a name for himself. He passed his early 
years in the peaceful surroundings of the Point 
but when the War of 1812 broke out, Jacob 
Hunter enlisted and took active part in the op- 
erations. He remained in the militia until 1821 
when he resigned his position of captain in the 
Eleventh Regiment of Artillery which was later 
merged in New York's most famous regiment 
of militia, the Seventh, as Company D. Having 
entered the service immediately after reaching 
his majority — he was born in 1791 — he left it 
with great regret, which he expressed in a letter 
still preserved, as follows : "Circumstances over 
which I have no control oblige me to take this 
step, while inclination strongly pleads to detain 
me in the ranks. But rest assured that while ab- 
sent from my accustomed post I shall still watch 
with interest from the distance, and should any 



emergency occur I can only add that when my 
country calls it will ever find me ready to fol- 
low." The emergency came, but too late to be 
made use of, for when the Civil War broke out 
Jacob Hunter had passed his seventieth year 
and could no longer take up the burden of active 
service. The sword that he had worn in de- 
fense of his country's honor rested forever in 
its scabbard on the wall of his library where 
he had placed it to be in readiness for use, until 
it was deposited in the relic room of the armory 
of the Seventh Regiment in New York City. 

William Hallett, who had come from England 
and arrived in Queens after a short stay at 
Greenwich, Conn., received on December i, 
1652, a patent for one hundred and sixty acres on 
Long Island, described as follows : "A plot of 
ground at Hellegat, upon Long Island, called 
Jacques' farm, and beginning at a great rock 
that lies in the meadow, goes upward southeast 
to the end of a very small swamp, two hundred 
and two rods ; from thence northeast two hun- 
dred and thirty rods, on the north it goes up to 
running water, two hundred and ten rods." In 
1655 his house and other buildings were destroyed 
by the Indians and Hallett removed to Flushing 
where he was appointed sheriff, but deposed by 
Governor Stuyvesant, and also fined and put 
into prison, because he had permitted the Rev. 
William Wickenden from Rhode Island to preach 
at his house, and had partaken of the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper from his hands. 'Hallett 
was a bitter enemy of Stuyvesant, as indeed all 
the English on Long Island were, and he warmly 
advocated the claims of Connecticut to the island 
when the population revolted from Dutch rule. 
He was a delegate to the General Court of Leg- 
islature of the colony of Connecticut and after- 
ward commissioner or justice of the peace for 
Flushing. Later he removed again to Hellgate. 
The records show that in 1664 he bought from 
the Indian chiefs, Shawestcont and Erramorhar, 
a tract of land beginning at a creek "commonly 
called Sunswick," and extending westward to 
below Hellgate, including Hewlett's Island. This 
tract included nearly the whole of Hell Gate 
Neck, and was called by the Indians "Sintsinck." 
It embraced many parcels which had already been 
deeded by the Indians to other parties, and which 
had been settled upon, and they were, of course, 
excluded when the grant was confirmed by the 
English governors, Nicolls and Dongan. But we 
see here how the name "Hallett's Cove" origina- 
ted. 

It has been mentioned that the Hunter estate 
was sold to Union College of Schenectady. This 
transaction became of such enormous importance 
to the development of the district known as 
Astoria, later incorporated in Long Island City, 




DRY HARBOR ROAD, SHOWING TWO-FAMILY HOUSES OF THE 
MARKERT REALTY COMPANY. 




PARKVIEW AVENUE, SHOWING TWO-FAMILY HOUSES OF THE 
MARKERT REALTY COMPANY. 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



87 



that a history of the Borough of Queens would 
not be complete without a short review of the 
facts in the case, and the men who were instru- 
mental in the execution of the trust formed after 
the property came into the hands of the college. 
Eliphalet Nott of Union College was desirous of 
founding a trust from the proceeds of which the 
institution should derive a regular income, in- 
creasing as the demands for funds grew with 
the enlargement of the college, which was not 
only the wish of its founders but also the nat- 
ural outcome of things. It is not necessary for 
our purposes to follow all the transactions which 
took place until the title finally vested in Union 
College, and it will be sufficient to state that Dr. 
Eliphalet Nott bought the Hunter estate in 1835 
for $100,000, through his representative, Jeremiah 
Johnson, and that Neziah Bliss was an interested 
party. On December 28, 1852, Jonathan Crane 
and Charles Ely were constituted the repre- 
sentatives of Dr. Nott, and they were to pay to 
him one-third of the net profits of the estate 
which they managed. In addition they received 
$1,500 per annum. In pursuance of the obliga- 
tion they had taken upon themselves, they had 
the property surveyed and maps made. From 
these maps, various lots and parcels were sold 
from time to time, until in 1861 the Van Alst 
farm was purchased and added to the trust, and 
a new map made embracing the whole territory. 
The whole matter took a new aspect at this time. 
The property was divided into two trusts : one 
popularly known as the "Nott Trust," and the 
other as the "Hunter's Point Trust." Under the 
Nott Trust Dr. Eliphalet Nott and his wife as- 
signed the property in question to Union Col- 
lege of Schenectady for the establishment and 
maintenance of nine professorships, six assistant 
professorships, tutors, fellows and scholarships, 
the. purchase of scientific apparatus, the establish- 
ment of a special library, and the founding of, 
and purchase of specimens for, a geological mu- 
seum. Dr. Nott reserved to himself certain 
rights which should allow him the fulfilment of 
his obligations toward Crane and Ely, and also 
give him the right to place the property in such 
condition that it would produce the best returns. 
The "Hunter's Point Trust," on the other hand, 
was created by a special act of the Legislature in 
i860. Under its terms Union College bound itself 
to administer the undivided two-thirds which be- 
longed to Crane, one Judson and the two Elys, 
who were the successors of the original joint 
owners with Dr. Nott, in connection with the 
undivided one-third belonging to the Nott Trust. 
This was done by the trustees of Union College 
at the request of Dr. Nott because it was be- 
lieved that in this wise the one-third belonging 
to the Nott Trust would be more rapidly mar- 



keted and turned into money than was possible 
under the old agreement. The property remained 
under these two trusts and under the control of 
Union College until 1884. In 1874 the trustees 
of the college had already applied to the courts, 
by means of an action in equity, to wind up the 
trusts of i860, and to separate its own property 
from that in which others were interested, but it 
took ten long years to reach a decision. When it 
was finally given, Union College received twelve 
hundred of the eighteen hundred lots into which 
the property had been subdivided, free and clear. 
It could now handle the matter without any in- 
terference by others, and has done this with 
great skill and for the lasting benefit of the 
locality. Over a million dollars has been ex- 
pended in improvements and for the develop- 
ment of the land, and a considerable proportion 
of this amount was spent for grading, docks, etc. 
The immense value of the actions of Union 
College cannot be correctly estimated without 
considering the fact that it is by no means always 
beneficial to a community if large tracts of land 
are held by a few owners. They have it in their 
power to hasten or to retard the advance of a 
city or village. The small property owner can 
do little in this respect as long as he stands 
alone. He is not strong enough to influence the 
development of much more than his own lot or 
plot, or perhaps the immediate neighborhood. 
Even if the small owners combine, they cannot 
accomplish as much as one single individual own- 
ing as much as all the others together. The way 
in which a large tract of land is developed, or 
not developed, frequently shapes the destinies of 
a settlement for many years, and even for gen- 
erations to come. Instances could be cited a 
plent}' of cases where a community could not 
grow because the proprietors of one or several 
large tracts lying in the path of development 
would neither improve, nor sell, nor subdivide 
their property. Sometimes a village is cut right 
in two by land that remains a wilderness sim- 
ply because the owners are waiting until a rise 
in prices will give them the profit they expect 
to make. Our tax laws are such that it is not 
a matter of large expense to hold unimproved 
property. In the meantime the surroundings re- 
main in almost a dormant state because nobody 
wants to buy property where large tracts are un- 
developed, not only because an even and equal 
growth of the whole locality is impossible, but, in 
addition, because one does not know how the 
property will be developed when it is once 
brought into the market, and whether it will be 
used for residential or other purposes. If the 
large tract held by Union College and its co-trus- 
tees had been held for a rise in the value, it 
would most assuredly have retarded the growth 



88 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEEXS 



of Astoria, and therefore that of the whole dis- 
trict now forming the Borough of Queens, for 
many decades. Fortunately it came into the pos- 
session of men who were eager to develop it, who 
wanted it to bear fruit, and who were not nig- 
gardly in the use of money if they could there- 
by hasten its development and increase its pro- 
ductiveness. Of course, the policy that brought 
about such splendid results was not inaugurated 
immediately after the Hunter estate was pur- 
chased by Dr. Nott. His interest had to some 
extent been speculative, and the real and sound 
policy of development did not commence until 
1853, when the management of the property came 
into the hands of Crane and Ely. They started 
almost at once upon a policy of important 
changes. One of their first actions was to apply 
to the commissioners of the Land Office for a 
grant of the lands under water in front of their 
property, both under the East River and under 
the waters of Newtown Creek. As soon as this 
grant was ceded, the work of amelioration was 
begun. The lofty hill at the mouth of Newtown 
Creek, which had stood for ages watching the 
tides flowing in and out and the ships pass to 
and fro, and from the summit of which count- 
less Indian chiefs had watched the shores of 
Manhattan Island, and from where Peter Praa, 
Bennett and the Hunters had surveyed their pos- 
sessions, was cast into the waters. The soil upon 
which generations of Dutch and English farmers 
had raised their crops was used to cover the 
reefs over which the waters had rushed so long 
in their restless activity. The shore-front was 
pushed out until it afforded safe anchorage for 
smaller vessels and afforded room and safe 
ground for the erection of ferry-houses and the 
construction of docks. The trustees were ever 
ready to assist enterprises which promised to 
make for the increase of the population and the 
establishment of industries in the neighborhood. 
When the project of establishing a regular and 
adequate ferry service began to assume tangible 
form, they readily donated three blocks of the 
new ground they had made on the shore by level- 
ing the big hill. They gave to the Flushing Rail- 
road, when it was first planned, a tract of land 
worth in the neighborhood of $20,000, and when 
it turned out that this land could not be used 
for the purposes for which it was intended, they 
bought it back. The land now occupied by the 
Long Island Railroad, extending all the way 
from the shore to Vernon Avenue, was given 
by the trustees of Union College at very reason- 



able terms. They opened every street and avenue 
in the First Ward as far back as Nott Avenue, 
and they erected a schoolhouse on Sixth Street, 
and maintained it for a long time, because they 
were wise enough to perceive that the village 
could not grow without reasonable facilities for 
education, and because they were liberal enough 
to spend their funds for an institution that was 
not alone a necessity but assured also the men- 
tal and moral advancement of the population. 
But the practical side of the problem was not 
lost sight of. Over two miles of bulkheads and 
docks were constructed on Newtown Creek and 
on the river side to the canal. When the turn- 
pike leading from the ferry to Flushing, now 
Jackson Avenue, was constructed, the trustees 
of Union College bore a large part of the cost, 
and they also contributed liberally to the con- 
struction of the railroad between Astoria and 
Hunter's Point. They gave forty-eight lots for 
a site for the new court-house, and have aided 
the authorities and the citizens in many other 
ways too numerous to mention. When it became 
imperative to secure a special act from the Legis- 
lature in order to execute improvements that had 
become necessary on account of the rapid growth 
of the population, the managers of the Union 
College property gave their hearty assistance and 
were instrumental in securing its passage. lu 
fact, the whole management of the interests of 
the college on Long Island has always been in 
able hands, and been carried on with great tact, 
energy and great foresight. The community could 
not have brought the availability of the districts 
along the shore to the attention of manufacturers 
in the same way and with the same success as 
the managers of the Union College Trust have 
done. They have made the trust a leading, if 
not the most important, factor in the develop- 
ment and growth of the section around Hunter's 
Point. The trust has paid annually from $S,ooo 
to $10,000 in local ta.xes into the city treasury, it 
has paid large amounts in assessments, and has 
expended enormous sums on its own account for 
the improvement of the property under its charge. 
Union College still controls very large tracts of 
unimproved lands in the wards near the shore, 
and there is no doubt that it will, under the 
same able management, continue to work for the 
betterment of the borough, as it has done now 
for upward of half a century, for the benefit of 
the community and of every single citizen in 
which district his home or his possessions may 
be located. 



m 1/- 



Nf 







>.~-^~~ 



4 \ 




- L\l, IN KISSENA PARK SHOWING RUSTIC BRIDGE 




1 SOLDIERS MONUMENT 

2 MAIN ST. LOOKING NORTH 

3 FLUSHING HOTEL 

4 CARRETSON HOUSE (bUILT IN 1659) 

5 BOWNE HOUSE (bUILT IN 1661) 



A GLANCE INTO THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 

PART V 




^E have now seen how the dis- 
trict at present known as the 
Borough of Queens and form- 
ing a part of the second lar- 
gest city in the world, that 
bids fair to rival the largest 
one before the present century 
has run its course, has grown and pros- 
pered beyond the wildest dreams, not only 
of its earliest settlers, but also of the people 
who lived there one or two generations ago. In- 
deed such rapid growth as New York has seen 
is unparalleled in the history of mankind as we 
know it, and there is no reason to assume that 
it has ever been equaled in prehistoric times. We 
must remember and ever call to mind that the 
islands of Manhattan and Long Island were wil- 
dernesses, never having been visited by white 
man, when Europe already enjoyed a culture 
developed and nursed during many centuries. 
There several races and a host of different na- 
tions had long struggled for power over each 
other, mighty ernpires had been founded and 
overthrown ; the ancient civilizations of Greece 
and Rome had flourished and gone into decay; 
the Germanic races had come forth out of the 
unknown North and conquered their former 
masters, and infused new and vigorous blood in- 
to the already declining strength of the Latin 
peoples. In northern and middle Italy and in 
Spain the Goths and other tribes had arrived and 
freely mingled with the natives, producing new 
races that were in many respects unlike the old 
ones ; they in turn had gone forth and attempted 
to conquer the world, and for the second time 
within a comparatively short time, Rome had put 
out all her strength to make herself the master 
of the known universe. A new religion had arisen 
in the Orient, had taken possession of all Europe, 
and fifteen centuries later the difference in the 
way of thinking had caused a schism, inducing, 
nay, forcing the races of the north to separate 
from the teachings of Rome, forming their own 
church. The arts practised by the ancients, neg- 
lected and almost forgotten in the centuries of 
stress and strife, had been revived in the Italian 
Renaissance, and the awakening of the artistic 
spirit and the love for the beautiful in Germany, 
France and England. A paroxysm of religious 
fervor had come over the people and hundreds of 



thousands had marched toward the Holy Land 
to drive the heathen from the places where the 
Savior had lived and preached. Africa and 
Asia were known, and many of the countries on 
these continents had been visited by European 
travelers and merchants. And during all this 
time the continent on the Western Hemisphere 
remained unknown, and even the men who spoke 
of its existence were ridiculed and considered 
phantastic dreamers. When it was really dis- 
covered — by accident, we may say, for Christo- 
pher Columbus was in search of India and be- 
lieved to have discovered that country when after 
a voyage full of terror the welcome cry of 
"Land !" reached his anxious ear — North Amer- 
ica remained hidden for a long time. For the 
discoverers, as well as the conquistadores who 
came after them, were in search of treasure that 
required no work to take away, that could be 
gathered by killing and torturing guileless natives, 
and they did not set out for new lands to conquer 
as long as their one desire to amass untold riches 




ST. PATRICK S CHURCH, DUTCH KILLS 

quickly was easily fulfilled. But one thought 
they had besides the lust for gold : as soon as 
they had become convinced that the new conti- 
nent was not India, they set forth to find the way 
they supposed must exist, the water route to the 
coveted India that was ever in their minds. The 
first explorers of the northern part of the conti- 
nent had no other idea; when they discovered 
the mouth of a mighty river they felt certain 
that here was at last the passage connecting 
one ocean with the other, that they had so assidu- 



91 



92 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



ouslj' sought for. Almost a century was to 
elapse after the discovery of America, before 
the white man founded settlements in the region 
best adapted to his way of living and for the 
fullest development of his powers, the northern 
half of the continent. And Hendrik Hudson, 
when he discovered the bay of New York, was 
on the same old errand that had lured so many 
valiant men to perdition, the search after the all- 
water route to India. 

All this had happened and Europe was already 
covered with ruins telling the silent tale of by- 
gone times, of races that had disappeared, never 
to return, of civilizations acquired during centu- 
ries of laborious work and incessant strife, of 
the march of countless tribes and peoples from 
the north to the south, always overrunning the 
older ones that had accomplished their destinies 
and grown weak and timid under the enjoyment 
of luxuries which they had long striven to se- 
cure, killing culture and civilization with the 
heavy hand of the uncouth son of forest and 
mountain who found satisfaction alone in the ex- 



- 


m_„: ^ 


m 


ill III I" 

^m^ Jfi 111 


W9m 





PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. I, DUTCH KILLS 

ercise of his brute strength, erecting new empires 
and in turn becoming the victims of the more 
hardened races who followed them — and the land 
that was one of the richest in the world, having 
been filled by nature with the most bountiful 
wealth, was still in the undisturbed possession 
of the roaming savage. Satisfied with the gifts 
that nature bestowed upon him without requir- 
ing more than ordinary exertion, he wandered 
through the limitless forests, killing the game he 
needed and drawing from the waters what the 
land would not grant. No higher desire lived 
within his breast, no effort did he put forth to 
conquer nature and to raise himself to a higher 
level. Free from the ambition to advance, he 
was indeed the lord of the land inasmuch as he 
was the master of all he saw, but he never really 
conquered nature, for he took only what could 
easily be procured. Ever ready to shift his hunt- 



ing grounds, never even thinking of the home, 
the one thing that is the foundation of all culture 
and civilization, and the desire for which is the 
first sign that man has emerged from the primi- 
tive state, he remained a nomad, and a savage. 

The white man came, and took possession. Not 
always in the Christian spirit in which he had 
been raised, not always remindful of the pre- 
cepts or the teachings he claimed to be devoted 
to. It is true that he cheated the Indian when 
he bargained with him, and that his only excuse 
was that the savage was satisfied with the price 
he received. But the white man knew that the 
Indian was not aware of the value of the posses- 
sions he bartered away for worthless trifles. Still, 
the necessity was there, and who will not make 
use of it when it offers? Often enough the na- 
tive was not even asked for his consent or was, 
when he refused it, driven from the land that he 
had learned to consider his own, with force. 
It is best to draw a veil over many of the trans- 
actions with the help of which the white man 
took possession of the land, and defended it 
against the former owner. No country and no 
nation is without similar chapters in its history. 
None like to be reminded of it, and however much 
we may wish that peace and good will and fair 
dealing alone shall rule the actions of all man- 
kind, we know that we all are mortals and that 
force and compulsion will always be readily ex- 
cused. It had to be. The Indian could not re- 
main the master of the land if civilization should 
arise among the primeval forest and upon the wide 
plains, and the warlike Indian could not live in 
peace alongside of the white settler. One of the 
two had to go. And who will say that it would 
have been better if full regard had been taken 
of the wishes of the savage, and if he had been 
treated with the consideration that is commonly 
accorded to every man who is equal in every re- 
spect. Many unnecessary cruelties have been 
committed, there are certainly whole pages in 
the history of the treatment of the Indian by the 
American people which we should like to have 
blotted out, and would wipe out of we could, 
and if any useful purpose could be served there- 
by; but we must not forget that all the guilt was 
not on the side of the white man, that the Indian 
was as often the aggressor as not, that he did not 
fight for home, for tradition and culture, but 
solely and alone for the privilege of remaining 
in a state utterly irreconciliable with progress and 
advancement, if not with all the notions that are 
universally accepted by mankind as soon as it 
has emerged from the worst period of savage- 
dom. We have no right to judge the early set- 
tlers too harshly, for they came here to found a 
new home for themselves and for the culture that 
had been acquired through centuries of progress. 




1 FLUSHING S BIG OAK. 

2 IRELAND MILLS. AMONG OLDEST ON LONG ISLAND. 

3 SHORE NEAR FORT TOTTEN, WILLET's POINT. 

4 SAILING ON FLUSHING CREEK 

5 KNICKERBOCKER YACHT CLUB AT COLLEGE POINT. 

6 WEEPING BEECH ON WASHINGTON PLACE. FIRST TREE OF ITS KIND 

INTRODUCED IN AMERICA. 




FLUSHING HOMES 

I. RESIDENCE OF WM. P. WILLIS^ BOWNE AVE. 
J. RESIDENCE OF J. C. ECAN, MURRAY HILL 

3. OLD MITCHELL HOMESTEAD, WHITESTONE AVE. 

4. BOGERT HOMESTEAD, LAWRENCE ST. 

5. MONTGOMERY MANSION, BROADWAY 




1 ORIGINAL FLUSHING FREE LIBRARY (NOW REMOVED) 

2 FLUSHING BRANCH, BANK OF LONG ISLAND 

3 FLUSHING HOSPITAL AND DISPENSARY 

4 FLUSHING TOWN HALL (uSED AS SEAT OF QUEENS COUNTY SUPREME 

COURT WHILE COUNTY COURT HOUSE WAS BEING REBUILT) 

5 ARMORY HALL (FIRST ARMORY OF I/TH SEPARATE CO.) 

6 FLUSHING PUMPING STATION AT OAKLAND LAKE 

7 NIANTIC CLUB, FLUSHING. 




1 RESIDENXE OF JAMES A. RSNWICK, nOWXE AVEXfE. FLUSHING. 

2 RESIDENCE OF CAPTAIN I. J. MERRITT, WHITESTONE. 

3 BULLARD RESIDENCE, SANFORD AVE. 

4 FRONT VIEW OF OLD BCWNE HOUSE. 

5 RESIDENCE OF J. VIPOND CAVIES, BOW.VE AVE. 

6 RESIDENCE OF JOHN W. CRAWFORD. PARSONS .^VE. 

7 RESIDENCE OF E. V. W. ROSSITER, SANFORD AVE. 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



97 



they came to preserve what was not only theirs 
but also humanity's most valuable possessions, 
arid above all, they came to make this new con- 
tinent a fit habitation for civilized man. They 
suffered at the hands of the savage, they suf- 
fered untold privations even after they had found 
security from the attacks of the Indians, they 
worked under the most severe difficulties, and we 
must wonder, when we read the story of their 
lives, how it was possible for them to overcome 
all the obstacles that they found in their way, 
and how their women and children withstood 
the sufferings that had to be undergone. They 
must have been a hardy race, brave in the face 
of danger, but braver still in their resolve to live 
a life as hard as was theirs with so little to rec- 
ompense them for their sufferings and priva- 
tions. It is not to be wondered at that so 
mighty a people sprang from the loins of those 
who first conquered the land in the truest sense 
of the word, for they did not despoil and leave 
it to its fate after the treasures which were near- 
est to the surface had been gathered, but they 
laid the foundation for the coming generations 
who were to reap the fruits of the work they had 
done. Of such stuff were the early settlers of 
Long Island and Queens, whether they came from 
the Netherlands, from England or from France 
or Germany. And they brought with them such 
an unbounded love of liberty and such a strong 
hatred against oppression of any kind that at 
that period the future destinies of this great coun- 
try were already shaped. For whatever might 
have happened, whether England would have 
treated the colonies differently when she delib- 
erately set about to offend them, a people thai 
was born in this way, that had learned to rely up- 
on its own strength, and that had felt its power 
as well as its ability to govern itself, could never 
have been subjugated by others. It had grown 
up in freedom and with the help of freedom, and 
it needed freedom as much as man needs pure 
and fresh air to breathe. 

This people grew in numbers, in strength and 
in material welfare. Necessity was no longer 
the one ruler of all and everything. Refinement 
took the place of customs that had become some- 
what rough in the course of the hard task which 
took the desire to do more than to force the soil 
to give sustenance out of men's hearts. It was 
no longer imperative to build every dwelling 
like a fortress because hostile savages might 
swarm out of the dense forests at any moment 
to attack, to pillage and to murder. Better, larger 
and more commodious houses were erected on 
Long Island, as everywhere else. It became 
easier to secure the comforts and even luxuries 
which had been so long missed and almost for- 
gotten. Blooming gardens and fields covered with 



rich crops appeared where swamps and woods 
had been so long. Communication with neigh- 
boring villages was established by wagon roads 
and ferries. What is now Queens awoke to the 
fact that there was a large city growing up near- 
by that was willing to pay for many things which 
could be produced in the vicinity. The farmer, 
the market gardener and the florist wended his 
way cityward and exchanged the product of his 
toil against dollars. Material wealth increased 
and was no longer confined to the many rich 
merchants who transacted their business in New 
York and came to Queens for rest and recrea- 
tion. And soon another transformation took 
place. The old city across the river was growing 
too small for the manufacturers who had estab- 
lished themselves there. They migrated across 
the narrow strip of water and erected their large 
buildings along the water-front, on the banks 
of the creeks and further inland. The sound of 
the hammer and the saw was heard on all sides, 
and thousands of busy wheels hummed in the 
factories. Queens was fast becoming a center 
of industry, and working men without number 
found it convenient as well as pleasant to estab- 
lish their homes there. It was an awakening of 
the greatest importance, and it tended at the 
same time to draw the bonds between the district 
and the city closer. But before the change had 
been completed, another one came, quicker than 
the most sanguine mind had anticipated. Large 
tracts of land were subdivided into building lots 
and plots, and swarms of New Yorkers, tired of 
living in a noisy, narrow and stifling desert of 
stone, came to seek pleasant and healthful homes. 
New settlements sprang up as if by magic, whole 




WARWICK HALL AND FIRE HOUSE, TORONA 

rows of houses, almost whole villages grew 
where a few years ago the plow of the farmer 
had prepared the soil for his harvest. He reaped 
better now than he had ever dared to dream in 
his fondest anticipations, for the value of his 
land was no longer measured by the acre or by 
the crop it could produce, but by the lot and the 
running foot. Staid old villages that had lived 



98 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



and, we might almost say, slept, true to the tra- 
ditions of bygone ages, awoke with a start and 
rubbed their eyes when the bright electric lights 
shone upon them and the cars swished by them. 
They were modernized in the twinkling of an 
eye, and new life showed itself in a spirit of 
enterprise such as had never been known. The 
new, the modern conditions were at hand, and 
they showed themselves first in the desire to 
combine, to be bigger and greater than before, 
and to unite for concerted action in the common 
interest. For what had been formerly and until 
very recent times a divided community, with dif- 
ferent and widely divergent aims and purposes, 
had suddenly become a compact mass. The feel- 
ing that all the different villages belonged to- 
gether and were actually compelled to unite, man- 
ifested itself and became stronger from day to 
day. It was not long in taking shape, and the cre- 
ation of Long Island City was the first step. 
This, however, could not suffice. A stronger tie 
was necessary, and a union through the perfec- 
tion of which local pride need not suffer ap- 
peared advisable. It came about when the Great- 
er City was formed, when the whole district 
could be incorporated on equal terms in the 
metropolis whose greatness everybody recognized. 
It was the fulfilment of what is sometimes called 
"manifest destiny." Queens had always been to 
some extent dependent upon New York. The 
nearness of the great city had given strength to 
the district across the East River and furthered 
its growth and development. Most of the in- 
habitants either transacted their business on 
Manhattan Island, or at least a great part of it. 
From there came, so to speak, the stimulus that 
made the blood in the body of Queens roll quick- 
er. In fact, a good part of the blood itself had 
been furnished by New York. There was hardly 
any dividing line in existence, certainly not a 




STREET VIEW, RICHMOND HILL 

visible one. The population was of the same 
kind, they knew each other and belonged to- 
gether. Their interests were alike. Consolidation 
could only increase the rate of development on 



both sides of the East River. Thus it was nat- 
ural that it was overwhelmingly desired and 
greeted with sincere expressions of joy and con- 
tentment when it came. 

As a part of the great city the different com- 
munities embraced in the territory known as 
the Borough of Queens have, of course, lost 
a certain measure of their former independence. 
They must look for the means to execute the 
improvements they desire to the city authorities, 
which they indeed help to elect, but which must 
take into account demands made by, and necessi- 
ties existing in, the other boroughs. But the 
compensations for this apparent loss are plen- 
tiful. The credit and the money of the richest 
city on the continent is at the disposal of the 
cities and villages which formerly found it very 
difficult to procure the means required for the 
most necessary things. Queens has been treated 
liberally, and many important public undertak- 
ings have been started and executed that could 
not even be thought of as long as the borough 
had nothing but its own credit to pledge. Its ovi^n 
inhabitants are no longer alone interested in its 
progress, but the whole city of nearly four mil- 
lions of people must see that the district which is 
now part of New York is developed as rapidly 
as possible and on lines in harmony with those 
which have been followed by the older boroughs. 
Before consolidation came, for instance, the con- 
struction of a bridge connecting Manhattan with 
Queens was a matter in which old New York was 
not greatly interested because it was believed 
not without some reason that it would benefit a 
foreign territory more than the city that would 
have to contribute the largest share of the money 
required. At the present time such a bridge 
connects two parts of the same city, it is there- 
fore without question a benefit to the whole city, 
and the opposition has lost its most valuable ar- 
gument, that the city would give its money to 
pay for an improvement the advantages of which 
would be reaped by outsiders. This is but an 
example, and there are many other expenditures 
to which the same line of reasoning will apply. 
Nor need Queens be overmodest and shrink from 
the idea of using money raised by taxes in the 
other boroughs for improvements within its own 
confines. Under the old conditions it would in- 
deed have been wrong to build streets and sewers 
in Queens with money contributed by citizens of 
Brooklyn or Manhattan, but now, since consoli- 
dation has been brought about, it is eminently 
right and proper. People who insist that each 
borough should pay for its improvements with 
the money raised by taxing its own citizens, might 
as well claim that the entire cost of laying out 
and grading streets, of constructing sewers and 
furnishing other needed improvements should be 




FLUSHING HOMES 

1. RESIDENCE OF ERNEST MITCHELL, WHITESTONE AVE. 

2. SANFORD AVENUE LOOKING EAST FROM PARSONS AVENUE 

3. RESIDENCE OF E. E. SPRAGUE, SANFORD AVE. 

4. RESIDENCE OF DR. WM. M. STONE, JAMAICA AVE. 

5. RESIDENCE OF M. M. GILLAM, BROADWAY 

6. CEDAR OF LEBANON (LARGEST IN AMERICA) 




FLUSHING HOMES 
i. residence of g. howland leavitt, bowne ave. 

2. "shore acres/' country residence of g. h. leavitt at BAYSIDE 

3. residence of pierre noel, jamaica ave. 

4. residence of wm. carson kane, maple ave. 
s- residence of c. c downey, parsons ave. 




THE OLD BLOCK HOUSE, HALLETTS POINT, 1814 




ALONG THE NORTH SHORE ROAD 




Peter M. Coco^ Architects 



QUEENS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LONG ISLAND CITY 




TOWN HALL, JAMAICA 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



103 



borne by the owners of the lots directly benefited 
alone. If this reasoning were accepted, progress 
would stop. The benefit of one is the benefit of 
all, this is the well established rule according to 
which all communities must be governed. If the 
city spends money in Queens, it increases- the 
value of the city as a whole, and the boroughs 
which are not as thickly settled as the others, 
must be helped to increase their rate of growth, 
if for no other reason than because in this way 
their taxing power is increased and the income 
of the city as a whole augmented from year to 
year. 

In little more than two and a half centuries 
Queens has grown from a wilderness into a fine 
and busy city. It is now growing at a healthy 
rate. Conditions are improving rapidly, and the 
signs of enterprise are visible on all sides. But, 
after all, the greatest change the district has seen 
in its whole history is still to come. It will be- 



gin within the next few years, as soon as the 
several tunnels and bridges connecting Queens 
with Manhattan are completed. Then we may 
look for the swarming of the people looking for 
cheap and pleasant homesteads in agreeable sur- 
roundings, then manufacturers and merchants 
will come in ever greater numbers, and then 
Queens Borough will indeed be a part of the 
great city in fact as well as in name. And it is 
not necessary to do violence to the imagination or 
to indulge in phantastic dreams in order to be- 
come convinced that the next twenty-five years 
will see a growth and development that will 
equal, if not surpass, anything done in the past. 
And ere many years have passed a new city will 
have grown up on the East River and the Sound 
that in everything valued by civilized mankind, 
in beauty and wealth, in greatness and activity, 
will be the peer of all the other parts of the great 
city to which it belongs. 




JOHN H. RIDEXOL'R 



THE FLUSHING JOURNAL 

PART VI 




THE Flushing Journal was a 
pioneer among the newspa- 
pers of Queens County and 
of. Long Island. It was 
founded by Charles R. Lin- 
^ /uA coin in 1842, and was the first 
if secular newspaper printed in 

Flushing. Prior to that year, in 1840, the stu- 
dents of St. Thomas's Hall started a newspaper 
called the Repository, which lived less than two 
years, and about the same time Mr. Lincoln 
printed the Church Record, edited by Rev. Dr. 
Francis L. Hawks, the principal of St. Thomas' 
Hall, for many years a noted educational insti- 
tution of Flushing. On October 9, 1841, Mr, Lin- 
coln printed a trial " issue of his proposed paper, 
with which he canvassed for subscriptions, a fac- 
simile of which appears herewith. The follow- 
ing March the regular publication of the paper 
was commenced. 

The Journal prospered and was conducted for 
more than twenty-five years by Mr. Lincoln. He 
was an able editor and made the paper a power. 
The first publication office of the Journal was 
in a small house on what was known as Cottage 
Row, the street in the rear of St. Thomas's 
Hall, and which is now known as Monroe Street. 
From there it was moved to rooms on Broad- 
way over Samuel Lowerre's store, which stood 
near where the Broadway Lyceum is now loca- 
ted. From this location the office was moved to 
two rooms in a building adjoining the Fountain 
House on Main Street. It remained there until 
the fire of 1868. After that the office was moved 
to the building on Broadway which is now occu- 
pied by Bowne's feed store. 

Mr. Lincoln died in 1869. The paper was then 
run for a brief period by Henry F. Lincoln, sec- 
ond son of the deceased- Shortly afterwards 
quite a contest for the ownership of the paper 
sprang up between Orange Judd of the American 
Agriculturist, then a resident of Flushing, and 
Conrad Poppenhusen, a resident of College Point, 
who about that time became the owner of the 
Flushing and North Side Railroad, and who 
wanted to help along the interests of his road by 
the use of the paper. 

During that contest Joseph E. Lawrence, who 
had recently come on from California, where he 



published the Golden Era. took charge of the 
Journal and was mainly instrumental in selling 
the Journal to Mr. Poppenhusen, securing a good 
price for Mr. Lincoln's widow. Mr. Lawrence 
continued as editor for several years, until 1872, 
when he returned to California to settle up his 
affairs there. Mr. Lawrence was one of the well 
known Lawrence family of Bayside and a jour- 
nalist of distinction. A noted contributor to the 
Journal under Mr. Lawrence's management was 
his sister, Mrs. C. W. Lawrence, author of "Do 
They Love Us Yet," a treatise on spiritualism. 
Another writer was Fred C. Harriott, the hus- 
band of Clara Morris, the well known actress 
who was then a resident of Whitestone. Follow- 
ing Mr. Lawrence the Journal was conducted by 
William and Arthur Gibson, but the subscription 
list did not grow under their guidance and the 
railroad interests having secured all they set out 
to gain by its ownership sold the paper on March 
4, 187s, to C. W. Smith, then of Whitestone. 
During a short period prior to the purchase by 
Mr. Smith, James W. Covert, who was congress- 
man representing the Long Island district, and 
who has, since consolidation with New York City, 
been an assistant corporation counsel, was edi- 
tor of the paper. 

Mr. Smith started the management of the Jour- 
nal with little capital but he succeeded in build- 
ing up a prosperous paper. Joseph E. Lawrence, 
who had returned from California, rendered Mr. 
Smith valuable and generous service until his 
death in 1877. In 1876 the Journal, which up to 
that time had been a Republican paper, was 
changed to a Democratic paper, and it is worthy 
of note that so strong was the paper in its news 
matter that the change was accomplished with 
the loss of but half a dozen subscribers. 

On March 4, 1879, the Evening Journal was 
started. There were many prophecies that it 
would not survive, but it made many friends at 
once and perseverance brought it through and it 
has not missed a single regular issue from that 
date to the present. It was just after this that 
the Journal was moved to the office at 75 Broad- 
way, which it still occupies. Mr. Smith conducted 
the paper until 1890 when he sold it to John H. 
Ridenour, the present proprietor. 



105 



106 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



The Journal Under Mr. Ridenour 

While not taking one whit from the praise due 
those who directed the Journal in its earlier days, 
it can be truthfully said that everything that went 
before has been far eclipsed under the present 
management, which is attested by the prosperity, 
the standing and the influence of the Journal to- 
day as one of the foremost of the suburban 
dailies of New York City. 

The controlling principles of the management 
have been : 

First — Independence of thought and action. The 
Journal has always fearlessly told what it be- 
lieved to be the truth. No consideration has 
caused it to waver. 

Second — Accuracy of statement. Every possi- 
ble effort has been made in every instance by the 
reportorial department to get all the facts, get 
them right, and state them without color or bias. 
An effort has always been made to give the 
proper importance to each piece of news. Having 
no end to serve, the Journal has not magnified 
without warrant the information it has furnished. 

The work of the Journal along these lines has 
been noteworthy. It has been the leader in an- 
nouncing the happenings of importance in the 
community. Every issue of the paper has teemed 
with exclusive articles. The Journal announced 
in Flushing two hours ahead of every other paper 
the assassination of President McKinley. It had 
the most complete account of the San Francisco 
disaster that appeared in Flushing for twelve 
hours. A reporter of the Journal was on the 
scene of the burning of the excursion steamer. 
General Slocum in Long Island Sound before 
the boat was beached, and that afternoon the 
Journal gave as good account of the disaster as 
any Manhattan paper. The trip to the General 
Slocum was made by a reporter for the Journal 
in a rowboat frorti College Point. The Journal 
had a special correspondent at the Vanderbilt 
Cup races and bulletined the result of each con- 
test within five minutes after it was decided. 

The Journal has on the morning following each 
election issued an extra that contained the full- 
est accounts of the local results. 

The fearlessness of the Journal was never bet- 
ter shown than in relation to the purchase of 
the land for Kissena Park in Flushing. From 
the very inception of that enterprise the Journal 
insisted that the prices to be paid for the land 
should be made public. Finally the Journal se- 
cured the prices and exclusively published them. 
This caused a sensation. Still adhering to its 
purpose of giving all the facts in every case the 
Jouriwl exclusively published an interview with 
one of the principals in this matter, which came 
as a thunderbolt in a clear sky, and which so 



startled the public that later an investigation 
was held by the Queens Grand Jury. 

Mr. Ridenour's Career 

Mr. Ridenour, as might be supposed, is the 
dominating personality of the Journal. He is 
ever open to suggestions, and courts them, but 
his own judgment, after hearing all sides pre- 
sented, controls every situation. 

From boyhood journalism had for him an irre- 
sistible attraction. Before entering Wittenberg 
College at Springfield, Ohio, he was connected 
with the Springfield (Ohio) Republic. After 
four years at Wittenberg College, he went to the 
University of Wooster, at Wooster, Ohio. Later 
on he took a special course in political economy, 
social science and literature at Columbia College. 
He is a member of the New York Alumni Chapter 
of Sigma Chi Fraternity, of which Grover Cleve- 
land is an honorary member. 

Mr. Ridenour's class at Wittenberg turned out 
an unusually large number of newspaper men. 
Arthur Hosterman and John Garver were asso- 
ciated for some years in Ohio and Indiana news- 
paper ventures ; Harr Wagner, publisher of the 
Golden Era of California; Robert Young, who 
was the editor of a number of church papers, and 
E. T. Bunyan, who was associated with Harr 
Wagner, were in his class. 

Mr. Ridenour wrote one of the first articles 
advocating an Arbor Day celebration and helped 
materially the first great celebration of that day 
in Cincinnati. For a cleverly written satire on 
the Wagner craze which had taken such a de- 
cided hold upon the American public, he received 
a letter of thanks from S. R. Reed, the famous 
S.R.R. of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 
and also from a leading professor in the Cin- 
cinnati College of Music. In 1892 while report- 
ing for the Cincinnati Post he wrote the history 
of Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati. This ar- 
ticle attracted considerable attention and was 
favorably commented upon by Archbishop 
Wood of Philadelphia and Archbishop Elder of 
Cincinnati, who succeeded Archbishop Purcell. 
It led, soon after, to his being offered the man- 
aging editorship of the Post on the return of 
E. W. Scripps, the president of Scripps' League 
of Newspapers, from a tour of the world. 

This league at the time embraced the Cincin- 
nati Post, the St. Louis Chronicle, the Detroit 
News and the Cleveland Press. Many papers 
have been added since. Cincinnati then had the 
unenviable reputation of being the most corrupt 
city in the Union. The city was tyrannized over, 
justice was trampled upon and this condition of 
affairs offered an opportunity that comes to few 
newspapers. The Post under Mr. Ridenour's 
management began a vigorous and successful 




I. PERCIVAL MULLIKIN 
S. JAMES F. CONROY 



2. WILLIAM O. DE MOLA 
4. HARRY R. GELWICKS 
6. CLIFFORD B. BOWNE 



3. LESTER S. PARMENTER 
7. JOSEPH R. HEMLER 










--";':;„ *'J^«t'^*'si^|iiiiS^ 



'^'&^'^'^ 





FAC-SIMILES OF THE FLUSHING JOURNAL OF OCTOBER 9, 184I ; THE FLUSHING EVENING 
JOURNAL OF APRIL II, 1879 AND OF OCTOBER II. I907 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



109 



crusade against the notorious rings that were in 
control of the city. The Post had made itself 
the champion of the people and its circulation 
jumped from 6,000 to 56,000 in five years. In 
1887 Mr. Ridenour was sent East as the New 
York editor of the Scripps' League of News- 
papers. 

While there he organized a newspaper expedi- 
tion to explore Alaska that was unusually suc- 
cessful, so much so, in fact, that the same par- 
ties were sent out a second time by Mr. Arkell, 
the publisher of Judge. The Alaska expedition 
was followed soon after by the famous trip of 
the fifty representatives of American skilled la- 
bor, including Mr. Coleman, secretary of agri- 
culture under President Cleveland, to the Paris 
Exposition, under the auspices of the Scripps 
League, for the purposes of studying the labor 
question in England and on the Continent. 

A change in the management of the league 
having occurred in 1890, the New York office 
was given up, and tempting inducements were 
held out to Mr. Ridenour to accept the managing 
editorship of the St. Louis Chronicle. He refused 
the offer to go West again, because of a long 
cherished ambition to own and publish a paper 
for himself. 

With a view of finding a suitable location he 
traveled extensively in the South and West. He 
was struck_ with the wonderful progress of the 
Southern States and the phenomenal develop- 
ment of their resources, but circumstances de- 
cided him to settle in or close to New York City. 
Before going South he had had correspondence 
with Charles W. Smith, then proprietor of the 
Journal, and upon visiting Flushing in November, 
1890, negotiated for the purchase of the Joitrnal. 
The formal transfer took place December i, 1890. 

Advancement of the Journal 

In its early days while the Journal office was 
located over the store of Samuel Lowerre on 
Broadway, in the rooms on Main Street adjoin- 
ing the Fountain House and in the building on 
Broadway now occupied by Bowne Bros.' store, 
the paper was printed on a Washington hand 
press. When Charles W. Smith bought the paper 
and moved into the building now occupied by 
the Journal a modern Campbell cylinder press 
was introduced on which the paper was printed. 
The equipment of the job room was also in- 
creased. 

Mr. Ridenour had scarcely taken hold of the 
Journal management when he began to increase 
its equipment throughout. First, a Thorne type- 
setting machine was installed to take the place 
of the hand composition of news for the paper. 
This increased the Journal's facility for giving 
news and was greatly appreciated by its patrons. 



It was but a few years until two linotypes were 
introduced and then the news composition was 
increased many fold. There was also introduced 
a Babcock Despatch fast-printing press. New 
equipment of presses and type were placed in 
the job room and it was made one of the inost 
up-to-date offices in the city of New York, a 
position which it still holds. 

The Journal's job department has always been 
noted for the artistic character of the work 
turned out. All lines of commercial work are 
being constantly handled. But in addition the 
Journal in 1890 published a directory of Flush- 
ing. It also printed the "History of St. George's 
Parish," written by the late Rev. Dr. John Carpen- 
ter Smith, and the "History of Flushing," written 
by Rev. Henry D. Waller, rector of St. George's 
Parish. A notable piece of work froin the Jour- 
nal's job office was "Douthitt's Art Manual." 
The Sword and Shield, the parochial publication 
of St. George's Parish, is issued monthly from 
the Journal's press room. The Thcosophical 
Forum during the time it was issued was printed 
by the Journal also. Ever since it has been is- 
sued the Journal has printed the yearly calendar 
of the Good Citizenship League, a work that is 
a leader of its kind in this country. 

The progress of the Journal was uninterrupted 
by untoward incidents until September 10, 1907, 
when a fire starting in the stock room was not 
gotten under control until thousands of dollars 
of damage was done. The press and linotype 
rooms suffered greatly, yet such was the enter- 
prise of the management that the following eve- 
ning the paper was issued as usual from its own 
plant, with the full and usual quota of news. 

The Journal Staff 

One of the cardinal principles of the Journal's 
owner has been recognition of the services of 
his subordinates. As long as seVvices are faith- 
fully done the employe can feel sure of his 
position. The. result has been the creation of a 
splendid csfrit du corps among the Journal men 
and their remaining with the Journal through 
long periods of service. 

The list of men who have been employed on 
the Journal is an honor roll, creditable alike to 
the paper and to the men who compose it. The 
Journal's columns have been made attractive not 
only by the efforts of the regular men on the 
staff, but by contributions from time to time of 
men and women of prominence, locally and 
abroad. The invitation has always been extended 
to any one who has anything of importance to 
say upon a subject of popular interest to say it 
in a communication to the Journal. The result 
has been that many able and interesting commu- 
nications have been contributed. 



no 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



In the early days Samuel B. Parsons, one of 
the well known literary men of Flushing, was a 
frequent contributor. Benjamin Downing, who 
rose to leadership in Queens politics, both be- 
fore and after his political star was in the ascend- 
ancy wrote for the Journal. Walter R. Burling, 
who still survives, and has been the founder of 
many newspapers on Long Island, and the late 
Thomas H. Todd, who was the founder of the 
Long Island City Star, served their apprentice- 
ship in the Journal office and received the inspira- 
tion here for their future successes. Police Jus- 
tice Edward Frame of the village of Flushing 
contributed very often. Clarence A. Drew, who 
afterwards became a police judge of Flushing 
and is a successful attorney of Queens County, 
was a, reporter for years on the Journal. Among 
the brilliant articles contributed to the Journal 
have been a series of musical criticisms by Rev. 
C. W. Knauff. 

Thomas Blain, now the owner of the Port 
Chester Item, served the Journal as local news 
editor. Monroe S. Wood, who has been for 
years the valued correspondent for the Brooklyn 
Times, and is also the owner of the Nassau 
County Sun of Mineola, L.I., gained his first ex- 
perience on the Journal. Jerome Case Bull, the 
novelist of national fame, reported for the Jour- 
nal. John Scott, who has gained newspaper 
laurels in the West, was a reporter for several 
years. Frank Tully, prominent in the advertising 
world of New York City, got his first newspaper 
experience under the present management of the 
Joxirnal. Likewise did Starling H. Busser, one 
of the chief aides in the George Batten Adver- 
tising Agency of New York City. Ben Benton, 
who is the leading sporting writer of Boston 
papers, served the Journal several years. Captain 
J. W. Dixon, who is a contributor to many army 
publications, was a reporter for the Journal and 
still contributes frequently. William H. Johnson, 
now holding a managerial position on the lead- 
ing paper of Tacoma, Wash., was initiated into 
newspaperdom in the Journal office. 

The present staff of the Journal consists of 
Harry R. Gelwicks, Percival Mullikin, William 
O. DeMola, James F. Conroy, Joseph F. Poey, 
E. N. Dodson and W. J. Barthell in the reporto- 
rial department; Lester Parmenter, chief of the 
advertising department, and Clifford Bowne, cir- 
culation manager. 

Mr. Gelwicks is now closing his thirteenth year 
with the Journal. He is a native of Ohio and 
attended Wittenberg College, the same institu- 
tion as Mr. Ridenour, and afterwards the Ohio 
State University. While at Wittenberg he was 
the college representative of the Springfield Re- 
public-Times. During this interval Mr. Gelwicks 
traveled as far east as Pittsburg and west as 
far as Chicago on assignments for this paper. 



Completing his college course he took a course 
of law and was admitted to the Bar of Ohio. He 
then came to New York City and engaged with 
the Funk & Wagnalls Company in editorial work 
on the Standard Dictionary. At the same time 
he did reportorial work for the New York Re- 
corder. Shortly afterwards he engaged with the 
North Shore Review of Bayside, L.I., as business 
manager. After a few months with this paper 
Mr. Gelwicks came to the Journal and has been 
with it ever since. 

Percival Mullikin came to the Journal April 
I, 1903. He is a native of Maryland and lived 
there until coming to Flushing. He engaged in 
newspaper work at the age of sixteen, publishing 
an amateur newspaper in Trappe, Md., known as 
the Trappe Enterprise. After four years he sold 
out and the name of the paper was changed to 
the Talbot Times. He remained with this paper 
as manager for three years, when he left to en- 
gage in mercantile business. In 1896 Mr. Mulli- 
kin purchased the Times and continued its publi- 
cation until coming to Flushing. Jubt before Mr. 
Mullikin left the Times the publication office was 
moved to Easton, the county seat of Talbot Coun- 
t}'. While a resident of Maryland Mr. Mullikin 
took an active part in the Republican politics of 
his county and was postmaster of Trappe for 
four years and a member of the Republican 
county committee. 

William O. DeMola came to the Journal in 
June, 1903. He has been a resident of Flushing 
since 1870. He has been engaged in newspaper 
work since boyhood. He was first with Walter 
R. Burling, who had a paper in Flushing. Later 
Mr. DeMola did special work for the New York 
Evening Post, the New York Tribune and other 
New York dailies. For seven years Mr. DeMola 
was news editor of the Engineering Record and 
was later on Contract News, Fire & Water, and 
other Manhattan trade journals. In 1886 Mr. 
■DeMola was for a short time on the reportorial 
staff of the Journal. Mr. DeMola is a member 
of Ancient Lodge No. 724, F. & A. M. of Man- 
hattan. 

James F. Conroy, a native of Flushing, first 
came to the Journal in 1895 as a carrier boy. He 
continued as such until the completion of his 
common school education when he was given a 
position in the Journal job rooms. He served 
his apprenticeship well and faithfully there, and 
then was advanced to office work. Before long 
be developed an aptitude for reportorial work 
and in January, 1903, was made a regular re- 
porter on the paper. 

Joseph F. Poey has covered the Whitestone 
field for the Journal for seven years. In the 
meantime he has studied law and is now a prac- 
tising lawyer in Flushing and gaining a good 
practise. He still continues on the Journal staff, 



V 




I. THE BUSINESS OFFICE 
3. THE editor's desk 
S- THE PRESS ROOM 



2. THE REPORTORIAL ROOMS 
4. THE LINOTYPE ROOM 
6. THE JOB OFFICE 



112 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



however. E. X. Dodson covers the Long Island 
City field and W. J. Barthell covers the Jamaica 
field. 

Lester Parmenter came with the Journal in 
1897. He is a native of Woodstock, Ontario, 
Canada. After completing his education he was 
with the Massej'-Harris Co. Limited, leaders in 
Canada in the manufacture of agricultural im- 
plements. He left the employ of that firm to 
come to Flushing with his parents. Soon after 
coming to Flushing Mr. Parmenter engaged with 
the Journal in the business department. He was 
shortly thereafter advanced to the head of the 
advertising department and has managed it with 
marked success. 



Clifford B. Bowne came with the Journal Feb- 
ruary, 1907. He is a native of Flushing, a de- 
scendant of one of the old colonial families of 
the town of Flushing. After completing his 
education at the Flushing High School he took 
a business course at New York City Y.M.C.A. 
Business College. As soon as his course there 
was completed he entered the auditor's office of 
the Long Island Railroad. He next engaged with 
the Foye-Fox Contracting Company of New York 
City. From that firm he came to the Journal 
and was placed in charge of the circulation de- 
partment. His work has resulted in increasing 
the circulation of the Journal materially. He is 
a member of Pacific Lodge No. 85, I.O.O.F. 




SCHOOL HOUSE, CORONA 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



JOHN HENRY THIRY, from 1866 to 1875 
a book dealer but now retired, son of Jean Bap- 
tiste Thiry and Anne Marie Dussard, is a na- 
tive of Antwerp, Belgium, where he graduated 
from the First Normal School in 1845. Since 
1874 he has been a resident of Queens County. 
His political convictions are with the Demo- 
cratic party. Mr. Thiry was school commis- 
sioner under three mayors and at present he is 
a member of the local school board, District No. 
41, Queens Borough, New York City. Mr. Thiry 
became widely known as the father of the Euro- 
pean system of School Savings-banks in the 
United States, which was introduced March 16, 
1885. Thanks to this system the little school de- 
positors have been able to save, up to 1906, no less 
than $4,896,584. He is a member of the Knights 
of Columbus, the American Social Association 
and the Charities' Organization. In 1853 he mar- 
ried Ernestine Desamblanc, who died June 16, 
i8g6. His second wife was Miss Margaret 
O'Connor, whom he married February 23, 1898. 
Two sons resulted from his first marriage, 
Raphael Ovide and Joseph ; five children from 
his second, George, John Henri, Henrietta 
Frances, John, and an infant born December 27, 
1907. John Henri and John died, respectively, 
March 17, 1899, and April 28, 1906. Twenty-two 
years ago, the distinguished gentleman introduced 
the system of School Savings-banks in the United 
States, which has grown to such an extent, that 
the system is now in operation in 1,098 schools of 
173 cities of twenty-two states in America; the 
scholars of these schools have saved $5,485,504.48, 
of which $4,875,897.26 has been withdrawn leaving 
a balance of $809,617.22 due. This statement is up 
to January I, 1907, and shows the total number of 
the little depositors to be 177,972. As the founder 
of this important branch of our school system, 
Mr. Thiry's name and triumph will stand imper- 
ishable throughout the Union. 

ELIAS A. FAIRCHILD graduated from Rut- 
gers College in 1854 and succeeded his father, 
Ezra Fairchild, as principal of the Flushing In- 
stitute, until the school was closed in 1902. Un- 
der his direction the institute was for many years 
one of the best known private schools in this 
country and was attended by boys from other 
lands as well as from every state in the Union. 
Mr. Fairchild's institute property was one of 



the attractive landmarks of Flushing, and its 
absorption for business purposes after the closing 
of the school marked one of the radical changes 
in old Flushing. Mr. Fairchild died May 2, 1907, 
and as a tribute to his character and life's work 
we quote the following: "We, the Business 
Men's Association of the Village of Flushing, 
desire to place upon record our appreciation of 
the life and services in this community of Mr. 
Elias A. Fairchild. Although never holding an 
official position in the affairs of the village, his 
voice and vote were always on the side of right 
and justice. In his life work, the education of 
young men, he was preeminently successful and 
many among us have reason to rejoice that they 
were placed under the guidance of his firm but 
loving care. Of a most cheerful disposition, he 
always had a kind word and pleasant smile for 
all and he will be missed as few men are. We 
thank God for the life of Elias A. Fairchild." 

DAVID L. VAN NOSTRAND, one of Queens 
County's most eminent citizens, the son of Albert 
and Harriet Williams Van Nostrand, was born 
at Little Neck, Queens County, August 30, 1851, 
and was educated at the public school of Little 
Neck. His father's family consisted of seven 
children, the former also a native of Little Neck, 
who at his maturity became a farmer. Com- 
pleting his education at the age of seventeen, 
David L. began his business career as a grocer's 
clerk at Mineola, L.I., and for three years de- 
voted himself to learning the rudiments of mer- 
cantile life, when he returned to Little Neck, and 
continued in the same capacity for one year, 
then opened his own grocery store, and for a 
number of years was the leading and most pop- 
ular grocery merchant of the latter place. His 
keen business intellect determined him to enter 
a broader and more extensive field, so he finally 
disposed of his grocer's affairs and opened a 
coal and feed business at Little Neck, which he 
conducted so successfully that he opened a 
branch establishment, and by his square dealing 
to all of his host of patrons, he finally became 
one of the most successful and wealthiest resi- 
dents of the place of his nativity. As a Democrat 
in political faith, his unswerving integrity and his 
methodical and prudent business methods were so 
highly appreciated by his fellow townspeople, that 
the Democratic party nominated him for justice 



113 



114 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



of the peace in 1880. He was triumphantly 
elected to the honorable position, and retained the 
office for nine years, when the party nominated 
and elected him supervisor in 1889, in which 
office he served faithfully and with distinction for 
six consecutive terms ; on his second term he was 
unanimously elected as president of the board. 
During this long period of public service Mr. Van 
Nostrand won the plaudits of his fellow citizens 
and had, by his accurate knowledge of square busi- 
ness dealing with his neighbors and patrons and 
his active interest in public affairs, attracted the 
attention of the citizens of the entire county of 
Queens, who pointed to him as one of its most 
loyal and faithful public servants. His name and 
his administrations became so popular throughout 
the county that the Democratic County Conven- 
tion of 1903 unanimously nominated him county 
clerk and the people and party of the county 
elected him by a rousing majority. In this re- 
sponsible and most important office in the Borough 
of Queens, Mr. Van Nostrand conducted it with 
that same practical business methods that had 
heretofore characterized all of his important pub- 
lic duties. In entering upon his term as county 
clerk he introduced a thorough and systematic 
method in every department of his office, that 
was not only beneficial to the public, the lawyers, 
and searchers, but invaluable to the county and 
state. On January I, 1907, when his term expired, 
he turned over to his successor one of the best 
conducted departments of the borough, that was 
brought up to a higher state of perfection than 
ever before, under Mr. Van Nostrand's manage- 
ment and three years' administration. On No- 
vember 9, 1883, Mr. Van Nostrand mar- 
ried Miss Mary E. Fleet. The result of this 
happy union was one daughter, Viola, now a 
young lady of brilliant attainments and of social 
distinction among Queens County's leading fam- 
ilies. Mr. Van Nostrand and his family are lead- 
ing members of the Reformed Church ; he is 
president of the First National Bank of Jamaica, 
L.I. ; a member of the Niantic Club, Oakland 
Golf Club, Knickerbocker Yacht Club, and also 
one of the leading members of Cornucopia Lodge, 
F. & A.M. In his domestic affairs, he is devoted 
to his interesting family, who occupy the beau- 
tiful and stately homestead on the corner of 
Broadway and Parsons Avenue, Flushing, and 
are held in the highest esteem by the leading 
families of Queens County. In 1877 Mr. Van 
Nostrand was elected to the Board of Common 
Council, and served as long as that body was in 
existence. 

HON. JOHN H. SUTPHIN, deceased, for 
many years clerk of Queens County, and leader 
of the Democratic party in that section of the 
state of New York, was a resident of Jamaica 



from 1871 up to the time of his death in 1907. 
His name and fame extended throughout the 
state, as a man of great charity. Mr. Sutphin 
for many years served as chairman of the Demo- 
cratic County Central Committee of Queens. 
He was a director and for some years served as 
president of the Bank of Jamaica; a director and 
president of the Jamaica Savings Bank at the 
time of his death, a trustee of the Jamaica Nor- 
mal School. He was a prominent member of 
numerous social, fraternal and benevolent organ- 
izations, and filled many high positions of trust 
in connection therewith. He was born at Jamaica, 
L.I., in 1836, where he received an education in 
the Flatbush Institute. Prior to his holding the 
important position of county clerk of Queens 
County, he held various other public offices, all 
of which he conducted in a high, conscientious 
manner. Mr. Sutphin married Miss Carrie M. 
Smith of Jamaica in 1857. Five children resulted 
from the union, viz. : Stella, Harry, Annie, How- 
ard and Nina. When Mr. Sutphin died, the poor 
living in his community lost a benevolent friend, 
whose place will probably never be filled. The 
greater part of his income was devoted toward 
alleviating the needs and wants of a large por- 
tion of Jamaica's poor . 

DANIEL S. JONES, a merchant and an old 
and honored citizen of Flushing for the past 
twenty years, was born at Stony Brook, Suffolk 
County, N.Y., in 1841. He received a careful 
education at St. James Academy in Smithtown, 
L.I. Mr. Jones is vice-president of the Long 
Island City Savings Bank; a member of the Ad- 
visory Board of the Flushing Branch Corn Ex- 
change Bank; he was formerly a vestryman of 
St. George's Church of Flushing; is a vestry- 
man of St. Caroline's Church at Setauket, L.I., 
and a member of F. & A.M. In politics Mr. 
Jones is a Democrat but has never cared to hold 
public office. In 1874 he married Anna C, daugh- 
ter of James S. Evans, D.D. Two children 
were born to the union, Lillian E. (deceased), 
and Johanna L., wife of Harvey K. Lines of No. 
28 Sanford Avenue, Flushing. 

RUPERT BARNES THOMAS, president and 
treasurer of the Lay & Way Company, New 
York, was born in Brooklyn, May II, 1866. He 
was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn 
and High School of New York City. Politically, 
he stands on the platform of the Democratic 
party. He is commissioner of the Board of Edu- 
cation of New York and a member of the Com- 
mittees on finance, sites and athletics. He at- 
tends the Congregational Church. On October 
13, 1887, he married Miss Mary Titus Broas. 
Four children are living, viz. : Rupert Broas, Ger- 
ald Provost, Katharine Ridgely and Ina Mary. 




HON. JOSEPH BERMEL 
President Borough of Queens 




LATE BLOODGOOD H. CUTTER 
LONG ISLAND FARMER POET 




RESIDENCE OF LATE BLOODGOOD H. CUTTER — THE LONG ISLAND 
FARMER POET — AT LITTLE NECK 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



117 



HON. FREDERICK SKENE, state engineer 
and surveyor, New York State, son of 
Thomas and Mary Parry Skene, was born at 
Garrison-on-Hudson July 25, 1874. After a 
course in the public schools at Long Island City, 
he entered New York University where he se- 
cured the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1896 
and that of civil engineer in 1897. For the past 
twenty-eight years he has resided in the Borough 
of Queens. In March, 1898, he was appointed 
assistant engineer. Bureau of Highways, Bor- 
ough of Queens; in 1899 was appointed acting 
engineer in charge of that bureau, and in 1902 
appointed engineer in charge, which position he 
held until January i, 1907, when he resigned to 
take office as state engineer and surveyor. Mr. 
Skene has always been a stanch Democrat. He 
is a member of Advance Lodge 635, F. & A.M., 
a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight Templar, a 
thirty-second degree Mason and a Mystic Shri- 
ner; is also a member of the Astoria Lodge 
I.O.O.F. and of Ridgley Encampment; member 
of Queens Borough B.P.O.E. and Queens County 
Aerie ; a member of the Municipal Engineering 
Society of New York City, of the Democratic 
Club of Queens Borough, and various other so- 
cial and political societies. On February 23, 
1902, he married Miss Minnie C. Weinholz of 
New Rochelle. Mr. Skene is a splendid type of 
the progressive American, and has attained a 
high place in the estimation of the people at 
large of Queens Borough. He has a thorough 
knowledge of engineering and is peculiarly fitted 
for the high position he at present holds. 

ISAAC PECK, D.D., son of Isaac and Abby 
Phelps (Beers) Peck, was born at Flushing, L.I., 
January 15, 1858. He attended the Flushing Insti- 
tute from 1869 to 187s, going to Yale College in 
1879 and graduating from the Berkeley Divinity 
School, Middletown, Conn., in 1883. Up to 1879 
he resided at Flushing. In politics he is inde- 
pendent. He is an active member of the Cornu- 
copia Lodge No. 563, F. & A. M. In 1883 he 
was made a deacon at Trinity Church, Middle- 
town, Conn., by Bishop Williams later to be ad- 
vanced to the priesthood in St. Mark's Cathedral, 
San Antonio, Tex., by Bishop Elliott. Rev. Peck 
married Miss Mary Constantia Smith Heyward 
October 2, 1890, their only child being Isaac Hey- 
ward Peck. 

HENRY WILLETT, decorator and painter, 
son of Joseph and Ann Willett, was born at 
Chester, England, November s, 1834. His school- 
ing was obtained at Nantwich, England. For the 
last twenty-three years he has resided in Queens 
County, identifying himself in the political sphere 
with the Republican party. He was a trustee of 



the corporation of Richmond Hill and after- 
wards president of the village prior to its con- 
solidation with the greater city of New York. 
Subsequent to the consolidation he was elected 
alderman of the seventieth district, but declined 
renomination. During the year of 1907 he was 
made superintendent of public buildings and 
offices. For many years he was vestryman of the 
Church of the Resurrection at Richmond Hill. 
He is also a member of Alma Lodge No. 729 and 
a thirty-second degree Mason, Scottish Rite, F. 
& A,M. Mr. Willett married Miss Emily Vic- 
toria James in l8S4. They have had sixteen 
children, of whom but seven survive. 

GEORGE W. POPLE, provision merchant, son 
of George and Elizabeth Pople, and a lifelong 
resident was born at Flushing, July 9, 1853. He 
received a careful education in the public schools, 
Fairchild Institute and later completed his studies 
at Cream Hill Academy in West Cornhill, Conn. 
For many years Mr. Pople has carried on an ex- 
tensive provision business in Flushing in which 
he has been highly successful. His name stands 
for everything that represents high, conscientious 
scruples in the commercial world. In politics 
Mr. Pople is an ardent Democrat. He filled the 
position of village trustee (Flushing) from 1886 
to 1889 with great credit to himself and con- 
stituents. He is a member of the Episcopal 
Church, Cornucopia Lodge No. 563, F. & A. M., 
Reform Club, Pentalpa Chapter, he is secretary of 
the Queens Borough Retail Butchers Association, 
a member of the Flushing Fishing Club, of the 
board of directors of the Corn Exchange Bank, 
Flushing Branch. He has also been president of 
the Business Men's Association of Flushing for 
the past ten years. In 1876 Mr. Pople married 
Miss Emma M. Sault. One child was born to 
the union — Byram, now deceased. 

WILLIAM ANTHONY BEAUMERT, an 
eminent citizen of College Point, L.I., the son of 
Francis Xavier and Christina Beaumert, was born 
at Watertown, N.Y., July 7, 1868. He attended 
the parochial school on Second Street, New York 
City, and after a preparatory training, entered 
the Canarsius University of Buffalo, N.Y., where 
he graduated with high honors. His commercial 
training began with his father, Francis Xavier 
Beaumert, known as the largest manufacturer, im- 
porter and exporter of cheese in the United 
States, where he is now connected as a member 
of the firm known as F. Xavier Beaumert & Co. 
and of which he is the executive head, and whose 
cheese factory is located at Antwerp, N.Y., near 
the Thousand Islands, which has a daily produc- 
tion of thirty tons of milk, and is rated by the 
New York State Board of Agriculture in their 



118 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



reports as the largest and most productive of its 
character in the United States. The exclusive 
manufacturer of the world-wide famous Eagle 
brand cheese, has won for the Beaumert firm a 
commercial standing second to no other firm 
of producers throughout the world. In January, 

1891, Mr. Beaumert married Miss Helen Kiefer, 
daughter of Robert and Martha Kiefer, the re- 
sult of this happy union being three interesting 
and promising children, namely : Frank, Mad- 
elaine and William Beaumert. Outside of his 
extensive business affairs, Mr. Beaumert has 
taken great interest in public affairs, which he 
believes to be the duty of every citizen. While 
a resident of the old Twenty-fifth Assembly dis- 
trict in New York City, the Democratic party 
honored him with the nomination for alderman 
and he was triumphantly elected for the years 

1892, 1893 and 1894, where he rendered valuable 
service to the people, and made a brilliant record 
in the board. Mr. Beaumert is a trustee of St. 
Fidelia's R.C. Church of College Point, and a 
member of the New York Athletic and Knicker- 
bocker Yacht clubs, the Democratic leader of 
College Point, and one of the most active mem- 
bers of the Democratic County Committee of 
Queens. He is recognized as one of Queens 
County's most public spirited citizens, always 
manifesting a deep interest in the advancement 
and welfare of the community, the progress of 
public improvements, and the rapid development 
of beautiful Queens. With his extensive com- 
mercial pursuits and his deep interest in public 
affairs, he is strictly a home man, and devotes all 
of his leisure time to his interesting family. As 
a substantial and useful citizen he has a host of 
admiring friends throughout Queens County, and 
among its first citizens he is regarded as a man 
of brilliant attainments, and worthy of the great 
success he has achieved as one of New York's 
leading manufacturers and Queens County's emi- 
nent citizen. As a member of the board of man- 
agers for the circus given in aid of the Flushing 
Hospital, Mr. Beaumert will be remembered for 
the faithful and successful duties he performed 
in aid of this noble and charitable purpose. 

CHARLES W. COPP is a prominent lumber 
and hardware merchant of Flushing. His mental 
training he received at the public school and high 
school of his native place. In March, 1892, he 
■ settled at Flushing, N.Y., and has lived 
there ever since. He has never taken sufficient 
interest in politics to become an aspirant for pub- 
lic office. The two societies, of which he is a 
member, are the New York Lumber Dealers' As- 
sociation and the Flushing Business Men's Asso- 
ciation. The extensive lumber and hardware 
business conducted by Mr. Copp, with yards at 



Lawrence Street and Bradford Avenue, is very 
closely identified with the growth and develop- 
ment of the Borough of Queens. Mr. Copp, who 
established in business here eleven years ago, is 
an enterprising and progressive merchant with a 
well earned reputation for reliable dealing and 
his business has steadily prospered. The yards 
extend along the railroad for about one thousand 
feet and have excellent shipping facilities, and 
also have two hundred feet dock frontage on 
Flushing Creek. Mr. Copp deals in lumber of 
all kinds, molding and trimming, doors, sash 
and blinds and builders' hardware and carries a 
large stock in readiness to meet all demands 
promptly and accurately. The plant includes a 
large and well equipped mill, now enlarged to 
meet the growing demands of the business, which 
is steadily increasing, and the facilities have been 
enlarged several times since the start. There is 
a branch yard at Port Washington and at Corona 
which supplies an extensive trade through Long 
Island. About 4,000,000 feet of lumber are con- 
stantly carried in stock, also doors, sash and 
blinds. Mr. Copp has earned his business success 
by reliable dealing, tireless energy and keen busi- 
ness foresight. He is a man of liberal public 
spirit and is personally held in high regard. He 
is actively identified with local progress. He also 
carries a stock of hardware of all kinds at Flush- 
ing and at Corona. , 

THERON H. BURDEN, a popular and highly 
esteemed public spirited citizen of Queens County, 
was born in New York City on November 
8, 1857, and was educated at Grammar School 
No. 40, New York City. In 1877 at the age of 
twenty years, he came to Queens County, and has 
been one of its leading residents ever since. He 
chose contracting as a profession, and has been 
active and successful in all of his business under- 
takings. On January i, 1875, Mr. Burden was 
married to Miss Margaret F. Loonie, and from 
this happy union there are nine children, namely: 
Margie, Minnie, Harry, Florence, Eugene Piatt, 
Henry, Lavina A., James and Mary Burden. In 
politics Mr. Burden has always been a stanch 
Republican, and has rendered invaluable service 
to his party. In 1880 he was appointed post- 
master at Steinway, L.I., and from 1889 to i892' 
he was deputy collector of internal revenue. 
In 1888, 1891 and 1906 he was unanimously nomi- 
nated by his party for sheriff of Queens County, 
and although on each occasion he ran ahead of 
his ticket, he failed of election, yet it is the con- 
sensus of opinion among many of the leadings 
citizens of both parties in Queens, that Mr. Bur- 
den was rightfully elected to the latter office in 
the campaign of 1906. As police commissioner 
of Long Island City, his administration was. 




THERON H. BURDEN 



JAMES ERNEST BUNTING 






■4^ .^.'iS^v'iy 



ELIAS A. FAIRCHILD 



DAVID L. VAN NOSTRAND 





THOMAS BALDWIN LOWERRE 



WILLIAM CONNORS 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



121 



marked with sound judgment and a strict en- 
forcement of the law. Mr. Burden is a member 
of Advance Lodge F. & A. M., Enterprise 
Lodge No. 228, K. of P. and the standard bearer 
of the Theron H. Burden Association, the latter 
one of the largest and most popular throughout 
the county. Mr. Burden is very domestic in his 
habits. At his beautiful homestead at 449 Ditmas 
Avenue he devotes all of his spare time to the 
comfort and enjoyment of his interesting family. 
Known as one of Queens' most progressive citi- 
zens, a man of great perseverance and tireless in- 
dustry, besides unusual executive ability, and en- 
joying the universal respect of his fellow citizens, 
the gentleman is a potent force throughout Long 
Island, and bids fair in the near future to be one 
of its leading administrative officers. He is a 
thoughtful and impressive speaker, and in social 
intercourse no one is more affable in manner. At 
the reorganization of the Republican party of 
Queens in October, 1897, he was unanimously 
chosen as chairman oi the Republican County 
Committee -of Queens County, the party recog- 
nizing his executive ability as one worthy to lead 
their forces to ultimate victory. 

JAMES ERNEST BUNTING, contractor, son 
of James and Harriet Bunting, was born at 
Flushing, N.Y. He began his education at the 
Flushing public schools, continuing it at Har- 
vard University. He has resided at Flushing for 
thirty-two years. His political affiliations are 
with the Republican party. During the years of 
1906-7 he was an alderman in the Sixty-ninth 
Aldermanic District. Mr. Bunting is an active 
member of the Flushing Congregational Church; 
of the Third Ward Republican Club, the Naval 
and Military Order of Spanish War Veterans; 
the Sons of the American Revolution (Mars 
Chapter), Corncupia Lodge No. 563, F. & A.M.; 
Pentalpha Chapter. Mr. Bunting has been quite 
prominent in military life. He entered the service 
as private in troop A, Georgia Cavalry, in 1898, 
and later was commissioned second lieutenant 
in the Third United States Volunteer Infantry, 
being discharged as first lieutenant on the mus- 
ter out of that command in 1899. He rendered 
extremely satisfactory service during the tour of 
his regiment in Cuba. He married Miss Agnes 
M. Gillies August 31, 1901 ; two children have 
been born, namely, James Ernest Bunting and 
Robert Loring. On his resignation as first lieu- 
tenant of the First Regiment Heavy Artillery 
of Massachusetts, he received a highly compli- 
mentary letter from the colonel commanding, 
James A. Frye. Mr. Bunting, on his mother's 
side, is descended from old Revolutionary stock. 
Solomon Bunting, a Revolutionary patriot born 
in Accomac County, Va., was his great-great- 



grandfather. Timothy Sammis, Jr., a private of 
Captain Alexander Smith's company in the ex- 
pedition against Crown Point in 1758, and 
Colonel Josiah Smith of the Suffolk County 
Militia was at the Battle of Long Island August 
27, 1776. 

LAWRENCE GRESSER, commissioner of 
public works, was born in Bavaria, Germany, 
January I, 1851. He landed in New York City, 
February 14, 1853. He attended the parochial 
school of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, 
on East Fourth Street, New York City, and grad- 
uated therefrom April 26, 1865. Since December 
16, 1889, he has resided in Queens County. His 
political sympathies are with the Democratic 
party. From 1896-1898 he was clerk of the Board 
of Health ; 1898-1900, inspector in the Bureau of 
Highways; from February 2 to September 17, 
1900, deputy commissioner of the Water Supply 
of the Borough of Queens ; 1902-1904, Secretary 
to the commissioner of Public Works ; 1904-1906, 
cashier in the Bureau of Highways; January i, 
1906, commissioner of Public Works, Borough 
Queens, a position he now fills. He is also a 
member of the Second Ward Democratic Asso- 
ciation; of the Order of Elks, No. 878; of the 
Marquette Council, Knights of Columbus. He 
married Miss Margaret Beck, June 21, 1879, and 
after her death, which occurred February 21, 1901, 
he married Miss Kate Buechner, November S, 
1903. Six children were born, viz. : Rev. John S. 
Gresser, pastor of Hollis and Springfield, L.I.; 
Lawrence T. Gresser, counselor at law ; Thomas, 
Otto C, Mary and Charles, the latter four being 
deceased. 

H. STEWART McKNIGHT, lawyer, and son 
of John and Sarah McKnight, was born at Jack- 
son Hall, Franklin County, Pa., October 20, 1865. 
His education was obtained at Chambersburg 
(Pa.) Academy, Pennsylvania College, Gettys- 
burg; and Columbian University of Washington, 
D.C. At the latter institution he received his 
bachelor and master degrees in law. For seven- 
teen years Mr. McKnight has been a prominent 
resident of the Borough of Queens, where he has 
extensive interests in real estate lines. He is the 
head of the McKnight Realty Company, a gigantic 
corporation which has done more for the develop- 
ment of the borough than any one similar corpo- 
ration of its kind on Long Island. This company 
has made veritable garden spots out of what 
seemed to be barren wastes. In 1894 Mr. Mc- 
Knight filled the position of justice of the peace 
for the town of Flushing up to the period of its 
consolidation with the greater city of New York. 
He was also a member of the Town Board and 
the Board of Health from 1894 to 1897. During 



122 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



the years of 1896-07 he served with dignity as 
a member of the Assembly, state of New York. 
Mr. McKnight is a member of Delta Fraternity, 
Philo Literary Society, Lincoln Republican Club, 
Troop C (Brooklyn), N.G.N.Y. He was in the 
service at Porto Rico during the Spanish-Ameri- 
can War. He is a member of the Republican 
Town Committee, Ward and Assembly District 
Committee (Flushing) as well as a number of 
other organizations. In June, 1902, Mr. McKnight 
married Miss Frances W. Okey, daughter of the 
late John Okey of Brooklyn, United States dis- 
trict attorney for the Southern District, New 
York. They reside at Bayside. Mr. McKnight is 
a member of Bayside Yacht Club, Douglaston 
Country Club and Phi Gamma Delta. 

^ HERBERT S. HARVEY, sheriff of Queens 
County, son of Steven R. and Sarali Harvey, was 
born at West Wheatly, Mass., January 7, 1868. 
He obtained his education in the public schools. 
His residence at Flushing, L.I., dates back to the 
year 1889. He has always taken interest in poli- 
tics and through Democratic influence he was 
made overseer of the poor of the town of Flush- 
ing in 1897 and elected sheriff in 1906. The 
Shinnecock Democratic Club counts him among 
its members. He married Miss Julia Daily, No- 
vember I, 1889, and four children sprang from 
this union, namely: Herbert, Mabel, Gertrude and 
Eunice. 

HON. EDMUND J. HEALY, attorney at law 
and former city magistrate. Second District, 
Queens Borough, New York City, son of John J. 
and Jane (O'Meara) Healy, was born at New 
York City, July 14, 1848. After a course at St. 
Francis Xavier's College, where he obtained the 
degrees of A.B. and A.M., he entered the Law 
School at Columbia College. He was admitted 
to the practise of law in 1873. Since 1877 he has 
been a resident of Queens County. His political 
sympathies are with the Democratic party. Be- 
ginning in 1880, he held for two terms the office 
of justice of the peace of the town of Hempstead. 
He was the first president of the incorporated 
village of Far Rockaway and was twice after- 
wards elected to the same office. Mr. Healy is 
second vice-president of the Queens County Bar 
Association ; a member of the National Demo- 
cratic Club of New York; the Far Rockaway 
Democratic Association, the Catholic Club of the 
City of New York, Manhattan Council, Knights 
of Columbus, a member of the Church of St. 
Mary's, Star of the Sea (Far Rockaway). He 
married Elizabeth L. Kane April 27, 1886. 

HON. MATTHEW J. SMITH, city magistrate, 
son of Matthew and Mary Smith, was born in the 



city of New York, August 24, 1867. He obtained 
his schooling at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, 
from which he graduated in 1885 ; and at the Co- 
lumbia College Law School graduated, receiving 
degree of LL.B., 1888; admitted to Bar in 1889. 
He has resided at Long Island City all his life. In 
his political activity upon platforms as public 
speaker he always upheld the cause of the Dem- 
ocratic party. In 1898 he was appointed city 
magistrate by Mayor Van Wyck for eight years 
and in 1906 he was reappointed by Mayor George 
B. McClellan for a term of ten years. Judge 
Smith is a member of the Democratic Club, 
Queens County, Queens County Bar Association, 
the Order of Elks and the Knights of Columbus. 
He married Miss Helen L. Mulvany, June 12, 
1901, their only child being one daughter, Helen 
L. Smith. 

HON. EUGENE CHARLES GILROY, law- 
yer, son of Thomas F., ex-mayor of New York 
City, and Mary M. Gilroy, was born at the city 
of New York, May 17, 1879. He obtained his 
mental training at the Barnard Preparatory 
School, class 1895, and the New York Law School, 
class 1900. He has been a resident of Queens 
County practically all his life. His political af- 
filiations are identified with the Democratic party. 
At present he holds the office of city magistrate. 
He is a communicant of the Catholic Church, 
a member of the Rockaway Democratic Club and 
vice-president of Culluloo Democratic Club. On 
February 10, 1904, Mr. Gilroy married Miss Eliza- 
beth Gertrude Hickey. One child was born, viz. 
Elizabeth Gertrude. As a magistrate judge, Gil- 
roy has always administered justice with a spirit 
of fairness, yet upholding the majesty of the law. 
He is the youngest man who ever held a similar 
position in the city of New York. 

HON. MAURICE E. CONNOLLY is a law- 
yer; he was admitted to the Bar July 2, 1902. 
He is a son of Maurice and Mary Connolly, the 
latter being a member of the Burns family. He 
was born at Corona, L.I., June 21, 1880. After 
graduating from the Corona High School, he en- 
tered St. John's College, Brooklyn, and later on 
Columbia University, where he obtained the de- 
gree of LL.B. Since his birth he has been lo- 
cated at Corona, taking great interest in politics 
as based on the platform of the Democratic party. 
In recognition of his services in this direction 
on February 2, 1904, he was made assistant com- 
missioner of taxes of the city of New York 
His name figures prominently on the rosters of 
the following clubs and societies : the Queens 
County Bar Association, Royal Arcanum, Knights 
of Columbus, Shinnecock Club of Flushing, Elks, 
Knickerbocker Yacht Club, and Queens County 





CHARLES W. COPP 



RUPERT BARNES THOMAS 





GEORGE W. POPLE 



ISAAC PECK, D.D. 





HON. FREDERICK SKEENE 



JOSEPH H. DE BRAGGA 





EMANUEL BRANDEN 



CARL BERGER 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



125 



Democratic Club ; he is also a director of the 
First National Bank of Corona. Mr. Connolly 
married on June 6, 1906, his wife having been 
Miss Helen M. Connell, daughter of James H. 
Connell of Flushing. One child was born, viz. : 
Helen F. On January i, 1908, Mr. Connolly was 
appointed a city magistrate to succeed Edmund 
J. Healy. His appointment has made the most 
favorable impression among all classes. 

DANA WALLACE, counselor at law and as- 
sistant district attorney for Queens County, and 
son of Joseph T. and Elmira Wallace, was born 
July 17, 1877. He was educated at the Flushing 
and Brooklyn High Schools, completing his 
studies at Yale University. Mr. Wallace has re- 
sided at Whitestone for fifteen years, where he 
is well and favorably known as a rising prac- 
titioner at the Bar. In politics he is a Republi- 
can. For some time he has very ably filled the 
important position of assistant district attorney 
of Queens County. In 1906 he was the Repub- 
lican candidate for State Senator for Second 
Senatorial district. He had large odds against 
him and was defeated. He is a member of Co- 
lumbia Club, F.O.A., I.O.O.F., Phi Delta Theta, 
Yale Akmmi Association, Hook and Ladder Co. 
No. I of Whitestone; the Whitestone Improve- 
ment Association, and Flushing Business Men's 
Association. In October, 1900, Mr. Wallace mar- 
ried Miss Estelle King. They have two interest- 
ing children, Helen and Estelle, both of whom are 
living. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace are very popular 
and prominent in the social life of Whitestone. 

PHILIP FRANK, lawyer, son of Gustav and 
Jette Frank, was born at Winfield, L.I., September 
17, 1873. He was educated at the Newtown Gram- 
mar School, the Flushing High School, the Col- 
lege of the Cit}' of New York and the New York 
Law School. He has spent his entire life at Win- 
field and Elmhurst. Politically, he has always 
been a Democrat. For some time he was a trus- 
tee of the Queens Borough Library, secretary 
of the committee in charge of the erection of the 
Carnegie Libraries in the Borough of Queens, 
assistant corporation counsel of the city of 
New York, and state transfer tax appraiser for 
the county of Queens. He is past regent in 
Newtown Council No. 717, Royal Arcanum; a 
member of Long Island City Lodge No. 586, F. & 
A.M., and Queensborough Lodge No. 878, B.P.O. 
Elks. On November 15, 1896, he married Miss 
Bertha Worms, daughter of Samuel and Lena 
Worms. They have two children, Miriam and 
Helen Frank. 

DENIS O'LEARY, lawyer, son of Patrick and 
Mary (O'Connor) O'Leary, was born at Manhas- 



set. Queens County, N.Y., January 22, 1863. 
His early education was obtained in the public 
schools at Manhasset, following this up with pri- 
vate tuition and a course at the University of the 
City of New York. His residence in Borough of 
Queens extends over forty years. In politics he 
is a Democrat. He was justice of the peace at 
the town of North Hempstead, N. Y. ; assistant 
district attorney of Queens County; also filled 
the position of assistant corporation counsel in 
charge of Queens Borough. Mr. O'Leary is a 
member of the Roman Catholic Sacred Heart 
Church at Bayside, L.I. ; of St. Michael's Catholic 
Lyceum, Flushing; of the Flushing Council, Royal 
Arcanum ; Flushing Council, C.B.L. ; Jamaica 
Council, Knights of Columbus ; Shinnecock Demo- 
cratic Club of Flushing. He married Miss Nellie 
G. Quinn, April 17, 1895. Three children were 
born to them, Eleanor O'Leary, Emily O'Leary 
and Mary O'Leary, the latter being deceased. Mr. 
O'Leary is a man who is popular with all classes 
irrespective of religious creed or political faith. 
He is progressive and always stands for every- 
thing that promotes public good. 

JOHN J. TRAPP, one of the most prominent 
lawyers in Queens County, son of George and 
Margaretha (Worster) Trapp, was born at Bay- 
side, Queens County, May 16, 1866. His father 
came from Germany to the United States in 1844, 
and settled at Manhasset, L.I., where he engaged 
in the manufacture of carriages, but shortly re- 
moved to Bayside, and there established a car- 
riage works, which he successfully conducted 
until his retirement from business. After remov- 
ing his home to Whitestone, .L.I., he became 
largely identified with public affairs, and was ac- 
tive in promoting the advancement of Queens 
County. He served as a member of the village 
Board of Trustees, Board of Health, and street 
commissioner for a long period, and was a stal- 
wart supporter of the Democratic party, always 
maintaining its principles. John J. Trapp was 
raised principally at Whitestone and educated at 
Flushing, graduating as valedictorian of his class 
in 1885. The following year he began the study 
of law in the office of Benjamin W. Downing, ex- 
district attorney of Queens Count}', and there 
gaining a thorough knowledge of the fundamental 
principles of the legal profession, he entered Co- 
lumbia College Law School at New York City 
and graduated June I, 1888, with the degree of 
LL.B. Entering into his profession, he rapidly 
gained a large clientage through his brilliant at- 
tainments. As a trial and criminal lawyer he has 
won the highest esteem of the Bench and Bar, 
and the public of Queens County. Thoroughly 
equipped for his profession, he is fearless in his 
line of duty, and of any controversy. He has 



126 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



been attorney in a large number of famous mur- 
der and arson cases in Queens County. In 1880 
he was chosen town clerk of Flushing, and the 
following year was reelected without any oppo- 
sition, his nomination being indorsed by the Re- 
publicans ; he was also appointed attorney for the 
Board of Excise Commission for the town of 
Flushing, and in addition to other interests, he 
was attorney for the Flushing Business Men's 
Mutual Protective Association. Mr. Trapp ap- 
plies himself assiduously to his profession, and 
takes a deep interest in all matters pertaining 
thereto, even unto the minutest detail. As a mem- 
ber of the Queens County Bar Association he is 
regarded among its distinguished members as one 
of its most brilliant and successful associates. 
Under the guidance of his father's teachings to 
him of sound Democratic doctrine during his 
boyhood, Mr. Trapp on his majority became, and 
at this present writing is, a champion of the party, 
and has always been loyal to its principles. On 
August 7, 1897, Mr. Trapp was married to Miss 
Hannah E. Peace, a refined and estimable lady, 
daughter of Harvey W. Peace, saw manufacturer 
of Old Williamsburg. There are no children. He 
is a member of Grace Episcopal Church of White- 
stone, Anchor Lodge, F. & A.M., and the Shinne- 
cock Democratic Club of Flushing. A gentleman 
who has combined nature's gifts of a superior or- 
der with thorough studies of the best authorities 
in the law, and by reason of these two qualifica- 
tions has gained large success; of liberal educa- 
tion and scholarly attainments, he is a concise, 
logical reasoner, always has his cases and the law 
governing the points well in hand. Method is his 
governing principle and he carries that trait ot 
character into his practise, as well as in private 
affairs. He is counsel to the sheriff and Third 
Ward Hygienic Ice Company. 

MARQUIS D. GOULD, lawyer, son of Joseph 
and Julia (Bancroft) Gould, was born at West 
Walworth, Wayne County, N.Y., February 24, 
1844. He received his education at the Academy 
of Macedon Center, the Albany State Normal 
School and Albany Law School. For thirty-eight 
years he resided at Flushing, L.I. He never held 
any public office, as politics was a field that did 
not appeal to his tastes. Mr. Gould was one of 
the pewholders in the Congregational Church at 
Flushing. He married Miss Augusta A. Thayer 
December 22, 1870. Four children were born : 
Maud May, Mrs. Dell Gould Long, Mabel Augus- 
ta (deceased) and Grace Stanley. Mr. Gould was 
a man of great force, a thorough scholar and a 
lawyer of ability. He was one of that fine type 
of Americans who was always guided by a sense 
of fairness toward his fellow men. At the time 
of his death he was mourned by a large circle of 



friends and relatives. At the time of his death, 
Mr. Gould was attorney for the Queens County 
Savings Bank and the L.I.S.&I. Association. 

WILLIAM KLEIN, member of Assembly 
and a lawyer by profession, son of Joseph 
and Johanna Klein, was born March 25, 1882, 
at College Point. He obtained his primary 
education in the Union Free School of his na- 
tive place. After graduating in 1896, Mr. 
Klein entered the New York Law School, and 
in 1903 received the degree of LL.B. (cum 
laude). He is a member of St. John's Evan- 
legical Lutheran Church; Anchor Lodge No. 
729. F.&A.M.; Marvin Lodge 252, I.O.O.F.; 
College Point Club; a member and secretary 
of Tax Payers Non-Partisan Association of 
the Third Ward; and Business Men's Asso- 
ciation of College Point; member of Queens 
County Bar Association; John C. Haefele As- 
sociation; president and member of College 
Point Rifle Company; member of Liedertafe! 
Alpenroesli and Harmonie Singing Societies, 
besides a number of other organizations. In 
politics Mr. Klein is a Democrat. He was 
nominated in the campaign of 1907 by the 
Democratic party, for member of assembly 
for the Second Assembly District, Queens 
County, and was elected by over 2,200 plu- 
rality, running ahead of his ticket. 

LOUIS GALLUCCI, lawyer, was born in 
Italy, October 25, 1882. He obtained his edu- 
cation at the Corona High School and the 
New York Law School, graduating from the 
latter institution in June, 1904, with the de- 
gree of LL.B. He has lived at Corona for 
twenty-one years. His political affiliations are 
with the Democratic party, but he has never 
taken an active part in politics. Mr. Gallucci 
is ex-president of the Corona Literary Union 
and a member of the Knights of Columbus. 
He is unmarried. 

MICHAEL A. GALLUCCL lawyer, was 
born in Italy, September 25, 1875. After at- 
tending the public schools, he entered the New- 
town High School, finally graduating from the 
Bachelor of Laws. Since 1888 he has been a 
resident of Corona, L.I. He has never been 
affiliated with any of the two great political 
parties, nor held any public office, but has al- 
ways remained consistently independent. He 
is a member of the Mizpath Lodge No. 738, 
F. & A.M.; also of Pentalpha Chapter, Royal 
Arch Masons, No. 206 and of Morton Trinity 
Commandery No. 4, K.T. On February 14, 
1906, he married Ernestine laricci. 



>^ 





HERBERT S. HARVEY 



DANA WALLACE 





HON. EUGENE CHARLES GILROY 



HON. MAURICE E. CONNOLLY 





HON. MATHEW J. SMITH 



DENIS LEAKY 





HON. EDMUND J. HEALY 



H. STEWART MCKNIGHT 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



129 



SAMUEL GALLUCCI was born at Florence, 
Italy, June 21, 1877. When he was a small 
boy his parents came to America and located 
in Xew York City where he received his edu- 
cation in the public schools. For the past 
nineteen years, Mr. Gallucci has resided at Co- 
rona where he now conducts an extensive busi- 
ness devoted to plumbing and steam heating 
appliances. He employs seventy-five men, his 
establishment being the largest of its kind on 
Long Island. Mr. Gallucci is a member of the 
Master Plumbers Association and of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church. In politics he is a 
Democrat. He was united in marriage to 
Miss Rose Levasky. They have three children 
— Theodora, Victor and Arthur. 

ROCCO J. GALLUCCI, real estate agent 
and notary, was born at Pietragalla, Italy, on 
March 26, 1870. His early edvication he re- 
ceived in a private school in his native land, 
but when he came to this country at the age 
of twelve years, he attended the public school. 
He has lived at Corona, L.I., for nineteen years. 
He joined the Republican party, but has never 
held any office. For years he has been a 
member of the Garibaldi Lodge No. 542; F. 
and A.M.; also of Court Corona of Foresters 
No. 428. On July 25, 1894, he married Maria 
A. Rusciano; four children were born to them, 
of whom two are alive, viz.: Charles D., aged 
eight years and Cecilia, aged eighteen months. 
Theodore died when four months old and An- 
gelica reached the age of fifteen months. 

JOHN C. HEMRICH, a prominent builder 
of College Point, is a native of Germany, hav- 
ing been born there on October 17, 1863. He 
was educated in the public schools of College 
Point, where he has resided for thirty-two 
years. Mr. Hemrich has done much toward 
the development of the locality in which he 
lives. Being a man of high integrity and 
honorable business methods he commands the 
respect of all who know him. He is a Demo- 
crat and a prominent member of Aztec Tribe 
(College Point) Improved Order of Red Men; 
also a member of College Point Fire Depart- 
ment and Enterprise Hose Co. No. 2. 

JOSEPH H. DE BRAGGA, superintendent 
of sewers, Borough of Queens, and a son of 
Antonio and Isabella De Bragga, was born 
at Brooklyn, N.Y. His education was obtained 
in the public schools at Brooklyn and New 
York. His residence in Queens County ex- 
tends over forty years. Mr. De Bragga has 
been an enthusiastic Republican, having filled 
the offices of deputy sheriilf, under-sheriff and 



sheriff. He is a member and chairman of the 
Queens County Republican Committee, Union 
League Club, Richmond Hill Republican Club, 
Civic Club, Dutch Reformed Church, the F. & 
A.M. and B.P.O.E. On April 6, 1901, he married 
Julia L. Burkley. Two children were born, Edna 



RICHARD H. WILLIAMS, son of Robert 
Williams, formerly a prominent builder, was 
l5orn at College Point, L.I., August i, 1863. 
After attending the public school, he entered 
St. Michael's at Flushing and St. Francis Xavier 
at New York City. For forty-three years he 
has been a resident of Queens County, entering 
upon its politics as a Democrat, holding the 
office of assessor of the town of Flushing and 
now that of deputy tax commissioner of 
Queens County. He is a communicant of the 
Catholic Church, an exempt fireman, a member 
of the Knights of Columbus and of the Shinne- 
cock Democratic Club. Mr. Williams married 
Miss Mary Hargraves April 30, 1885, their union 
being blessed with three children, Robert Vin- 
cent, Richard A. and Mary Eileene. 

JAMES H. JOHNSON, civil engineer, son of 
Joseph and Mary Johnson of New York, was 
born at Long Island City, June 16, 1871. After 
graduating from the Fourth Ward public 
school, he continued his studies at Cooper In- 
stitute, New York City. He has lived all his 
life in Queens County and as an enthusiastic 
Democrat he took a lively interest in the politi- 
cal happenings of that district, and in i8g8 was 
elected as supervisor of Long Island City. Mr. 
Johnson attends the Presbyterian Church, is a 
member of the Elks, the Queensborough 
Lodge No. 878, the Royal Arcanum, the De 
Long Council, the Queensborough Aerie ■ of 
Eagles, the Veteran Firemen Democratic Club 
and the Long Island City Lodge, F. & A.M. 
On June 16, 1892, he married Miss Mary Dun- 
phy of New Y'ork City and they have one son, 
Joseph. 

CHARLES WILLE, general contractor, son 
of August and Carolina Wille, was born at the 
city of New York, March 11, 1866. His school- 
ing was obtained at the Woodside public 
schools. All his .life long he has been a resi- 
dent of Woodside. Mr. Wille received the con- 
tract for the Queens County Court-house in 
Long Island City, which will remain as a splen- 
did monument to him in years to come. Iir 
the political field he has always supported the 
Democratic party. For twenty years he was 
a volunteer fireman of the Woodside Hook and 
Ladder Company, H. 3, and a captain of a 



130 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



company for nine years, and charter member 
of Exempt Firemen Association for the town 
of Newtown. He is also a charter member of 
the Second Ward Democratic Association, a 
member of the Long Island City Lodge, F. & 
A.M., and of the Eagles. Mr. Wille is married 
and has two children, August F. Wille, aged 
fourteen, and Carolina F. Wille, aged twelve. 

CARL BERGER, architect by profession, 
was born in Germany, September 27, 1869. He 
laid the foundation of his education in the pub- 
lic school, completing it with a course in the 
Jersey City High School and the New York 
Evening High Schools. He has resided in the 
Borough of Queens for fourteen years and 
always been an ardent Democrat. From 1902 
to 1906 he was inspector of tenements and plan 
examiner in the Tenement House Department. 
When he took the examination for tenement 
house inspector, he came out at the head of 
the list among twelve hundred admitted to ex- 
amination. At present he is superintendent of 
buildings for the Borough of Queens. Mr. 
Berger is a member of the Second Ward Dem- 
ocratic Organization and of the Merchants' 
Lodge, F. & A.M., 709, Brooklyn. 

PATRICK B. LEAHY, mechanical and civil 
engineer, son of Edward and Ellen Leahy, was 
born at Middletown, N.Y., March 24, 1858. 
Having graduated from the public schools, he 
completed a course of studies at the Middle- 
town Engineering School. Since 1894 he has 
been a resident of the Borough of Queens. Al- 
though he is an ardent Democrat, he has not 
held any public office, other than the present 
one of deputy collector of assessments and ar- 
rears, Borough of Queens. Mr. Leahy attends 
the Catholic Church; is a member of the Irish- 
American Athletic Club and of the National 
Association of Engineers, and of the American 
Society of Naval Engineers. He married Miss 
Ellen Sweeney of Middletown, July 22, 1879, 
and their union has been blessed with ten chil- 
dren, viz.: Edward, Alice, Charles, Daniel, 
Ellen, Ann, Mary, Frank, Jessie and William. 

HERMAN RINGE, one of the most popular 
men in the Borough of Queens, was born at No. 
8 Forest Avenue, Metropolitan, N.Y. He attend- 
ed the Public Schools and was graduated from the 
Boys' High School, Brooklyn. For many years 
he was engaged in real estate operations and build- 
ing trade, in which he was very successful. He 
has resided in the Borough of Queens practically 
all his life. In politics Mr. Ringe is an ardent 
Democrat and stands high in the councils of his 
party. He has held several prominent positions, 



among which are chief clerk in the Department 
of Highways; secretary of the Borough of 
Queens, also chief of Newtown Fire Department. 
Mr. Ringe is a member of the Second Ward 
Democratic Association ; Elks ; Eagles ; Forest- 
ers; Royal Arcanum; F. and A. M. Kismet Tem- 
ple. On March 5, 1896, he married Miss Carrie 
M. Keller. Two children have been born to the 
union, Herman, Jr., and Lester C. Ringe, both 
of whom are living. Mr. Ringe is a gentleman of 
agreeable and enjoying manners and possesses a 
coterie of friends whose numbers are legion. He 
IS a man of unimpeachable reputation and en- 
joys the confidence of every citizen in the bor- 
ough irrespective of politics or religious creed. 

EMANUEL BRANDEN, president Branden, 
Sylvester Realty Company, son of Samuel and 
Esther Branden, was born in Hamburg, Ger- 
many, February 22, 1851. After receiving his 
education in Germany, he came to the United 
States, settling at Newtown thirty years ago. 
In politics he is an ardent Democrat, having 
held the office of justice of the peace from 
1884 to 1892, when he became coroner from 
1892 to 1895. In addition he is cashier of the 
Highway Department. The Royal Arcanum is 
the only society which includes Mr. Branden 
among its members. On March 9, 1870, he en- 
tered upon matrimony with Miss Marie Deil; 
eight children have sprung from this union, 
viz.: Samuel, Emanuel, John, Thomas, Anna, 
Esther, Johanna and Lena. Mr. Branden has 
ingratiated himself to the citizens of Newtown 
by the cutting down of the tax rate in 1891 
(while he was justice of the peace), from $6.10 
to $2.58 per $100. He received a strong testi- 
monial from his constituents for the valuable 
services he rendered them. 

JOHN NIEDERSTEIN, real estate broker 
and present clerk of Queens County, son of 
John and Apollonia (Bauer) Niederstein, was 
born at New York, March 21, 1871. After at- 
tending the New York public schools, he com- 
pleted his education at the University of Bonn, 
Germany. He has been a resident of the Bor- 
ough of Queens for fifteen years, always voting 
with the Democratic party. Mr. Niederstein 
is a member of the Arion Society of Brooklyn, 
the Order of Elks, No. 22, Lincoln Lodge No. 
748, the Second Ward Democratic Association, 
Fearless Hook and Ladder Company, of which 
he was one of the organizers in 1890, being 
made its first assistant foreman and finally 
foreman, his friends presenting him with a sil- 
ver trumpet in recognition of his services. For 
four years he was a trustee of the Fire Depart- 
ment, and in 1895 he ran for assessor. In 1889 





PHILIP FRANK 



HERMAN RINGE 





JOHN M. PHILLIPS 



CHARLES S. GARRETSON 





MICHAEL A. GALLUCCI 



ROCCO J. GALLUCCI 





SAMUEL GALLUCCI 



LOUIS GALLUCa 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



133 



he married Miss Minnie Siebs; they had one 
child, Etta. After the death of his first wife 
he married Miss Louisa Reimers of Ridgwood 
in 1896. Two children sprang from this union, 
Lillie and Maxine. Mr. Niederstein's father 
was chef for Prince Frederick William of Prus- 
sia and afterwards for Emperor Frederick. 
Mr. Niederstein is a citizen in whom the people 
of the borough have the greatest confidence. 
He is obliging to a degree, affable and con- 
genial to all whom he comes in contact with. 

JOSEPH FLANAGAN, alderman and real es- 
tate broker, son of John and Ellen Flanagan, 
was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., January 20, 1876. 
After attending the public schools, he supple- 
mented his education with a course at St. John's 
College, Brooklyn. During the last nine years 
he has been a resident of Corona, L.I. His po- 
litical convictions have always been devoted to 
the principles of the Democratic party. In No- 
vember, 1906, he was elected to represent his dis- 
trict in the state assembly. In November, 1907, 
he was elected to the Board of Aldermen of the 
city of New York by a large majority. Mr. Flan- 
agan is a member of the Queens County Demo- 
cratic Club, the Second Ward Democratic Asso- 
ciation, the Shinnecock Club of Flushing, the 
Seymour Club, the Corona Athletic Club, the 
Civic Club, the Foresters of America and the 
Newtown Volunteer Fire Department. He mar- 
ried Miss Mary Cragen, the daughter of Martin 
and Mary Cragen, December 25, 1903. Mr. 
Flanagan is one of Queens County's most pro- 
gressive citizens and is always identified with 
every movement intended for the development of 
the Borough of Queens. 

CHARLES FREDERICKS, by profession 
an engraver, was born October 16, 1874, in New 
York City and resided in Long Island City since 
1882, where he received an education in the 
public schools. Mr. Fredericks is a stanch Dem- 
ocrat and for several years has held and is still 
holding the responsible position of secretary to 
the building commissioner in the Borough of 
Queens. He is a member of the Episcopal 
Church, president of the Powhatan Democratic 
Club; he also has been a delegate of the Cen- 
tral Federated Union and the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. He is a member of the 
Democratic Club of Long Island City as well 
as of many other societies of Long Island. He 
has made himself extremely popular with all 
who have had business with the department 
where he is employed as secretary, by his 
pleasing, suave manner. 



FRANCIS J. MEAGHER, builder and 
dealer in builders' material, son of John S. and 
Frances Meagher, was born at New York City, 
December 12, 1870. His education was obtained 
at the New York public schools. He has been 
a resident at Queens County for twenty years. 
Although taking much interest in politics on 
the Democratic side, he has never held any 
public office than his present one, that of chief 
inspector of the Bureau of Buildings for 
Queens Borough. He is a member of the 
Elks, the Royal Arcanum, F. & A.M., and the 
Mystic Shriners. Mr. Meagher entered mar- 
ried life in 1892 and has one daughter thirteen 
years old. 

THOMAS C. McCORMICK, real estate op- 
erator, son of Peter and Mary McCormick, was 
born at Long Island City, September 8, 1876. 
He received his elementary education at the 
public schools of Long Island City, supple- 
menting it by a course at St. Francis College, 
Brooklyn. He has been a lifelong resident of 
Long Island City, allying himself in the politi- 
cal field with the Republican party and being 
their nominee in the election of 1906 for the 
Assembly of the First District, Long Island 
City. 

WILLIAM E. EVERITT, chief clerk in the 
Bureau of Public Buildings and Offices for the 
Borough of Queens, was born at Jamaica, 
March 14, 1859, where he was graduated from 
the public schools. For many years Mr. Everitt 
was a leading undertaker of Jamaica; he also 
conducted an extensive livery business in con- 
nection therewith. He is a stanch Democrat 
and stands high in the councils of his party. 
He filled the position of town clerk of Jamiaca 
for seven years; in 1893 he was elected super- 
visor and reelected to that office again for a 
second terra; at present he holds the position 
of chief clerk in the Bureau of Public Buildings 
for the Borough of Queens. He is a member 
of the F. & A.M. and of the Royal Arcanum. 
In 1880 Mr. Everitt married Miss Jessie Bur- 
ger to whom three children have been born, 
viz.: Jessie, Edna and William ' E., Jr. Mr. 
Everitt possesses a pleasing personality, is of 
a genial disposition and is well liked by all who 
enjoy the pleasure of his acquaintance. 

WOALCOTT NOBLE, formerly secretary to 
the Honorable Frederick Skene, now state en- 
gineer, now connected with the engineering de- 
partment of Queens Borough, and a son of Sol- 
omon B. and Agnes Noble, was born at Chatnam, 
N.Y., August 25, 1861. He obtained his primary 
education at the public schools of New York 



134 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



City, which he attended until he was thirteen 
years of age, at which time his parents sent him 
to the Celle School at Hanover, Germany. His 
father, the late Solomon B. Noble, was a man 
of great prominence and was popular with all 
classes of people. He was, when a 3'oung man, 
secretary to General Walker, who in 1856 under- 
took to revolutionize Nicaraugua, was captured 
and taken aboard the United States vessel at 
Greytown. He was an affable, scholarly gentle- 
man, possessing an unusually large experience in 
human affairs. His wife, Agnes, was an au- 
thoress, and as one of the founders of 
Sorosis, had attracted considerable attention in 
the literary world. Solomon B. Noble held vari- 
ous offices under the city administration, having 
been at one time corporation counsel under May- 
or Ditmars. Wolcott Noble, the subject of this 
sketch, has been a resident of the Borough of 
Queens for over forty years. He has always 
been a stanch Democrat but has never held an 
elective office. He is a member of Ravenswood 
Boat Club; Advance Lodge, F. & A.M., and 
Banner Chapter and Queensborough Lodge No. 
878, B.P.O.E. He is unmarried, well known and 
a highly esteemed citizen of Queens Borough. 

CONRAD GARBE, assemblyman, son of 
Anton and Louisa Garbe, was born at Wood- 
haven, L.I., April 29, 1861. He obtained his 
education at the public schools of Jamaica and 
has been a resident of Woodhaven all his life 
long. He is an enthusiastic Democrat and out- 
side of having served as a member of the 
School Board for four years, he is assembly- 
man of his district. Mr. Garbe is a communi- 
cant of the Congregational Church, a member 
of Lodge Jamaica, F. & A.M., R.A., LO.O.F., D. 
D.H. and other local societies. He married 
Wilhelmina Verades May 8, 1883. Two chil- 
dren have been born to this union, Conrad, Jr., 
and Amelia. As a citizen, Mr. Garbe stands 
high in the esteem of his fellow men. His po- 
litical career, as well as that of his private life, 
has always been above reproach. As a mem- 
ber of the Assembly his constituents have a 
representative who is ever watchful of their 
interests to an extreme degree. 

BRAMWELL DAVIS, building and real es- 
tate operator, son of John and Martha Davis, 
was born at Decatur, 111. He obtained his edu- 
cation at Junction City, Kan., Kansas City, 
Mo., and Washington, D.C. For some years 
prior to his removal to the Borough of Queens, 
Mr. Davis was engaged in newspaper work in 
an editorial capacity in New York City. On 
account of close indoor confinement connected 
with his former profession, he decided to en- 



gage in his present business, in which he has 
been very successful. Mr. Davis is much inter- 
ested in athletic sports; he is a member of the 
Bayside Yacht Club, the Douglaston Country 
Club, Mens' Club of All Saints' Church and of 
the Pen Club of New York City. In politics 
he is a Democrat. In June, i8g6, he married 
Miss Katharine McNaught; one child has been 
born to the union, Malcolm, aged eleven years. 

THOMAS BALDWIN LOWERRE, the 
present popular postmaster of Flushing, and 
one of Queens County's highly esteemed citi- 
zens, and son of Thomas B. and Julia Lowerre, 
was born on April 8, 1865, at Brooklyn, N.Y., 
and educated in the public schools. No resi- 
dent of Queens has pursued a more honorable 
career, or been of greater value as a citizen, 
than the gentleman whose name introduces 
these paragraphs, and who is well known 
throughout the county. His life and character 
are well worthy of imitation by those who, like 
himself, must be the architects of their own 
fortunes and destinies. His habits are unosten- 
tatious, his indulgence impartial, his convic- 
tions strong, and his benefactions, like his la- 
bors, generous and constant. Starting out on 
his own resources, he has made his way in the 
world, and by honest methods and faithful ser- 
vice has gradually advanced, until at present 
time of writing, he occupies the high and re- 
sponsible position as postmaster of Flushing. 
His pleasing manners and open, frank way of 
conducting the postoffice have made him ex- 
tremely popular with all the merchants and 
residents throughout his bailiwick. Since his 
majority, Mr. Lowerre has always been a 
staunch and stalwart Republican, identifying 
himself with its progress and its aims, both 
local and national. Mr. Lowerre was united 
in marriage to Miss Miimie G. Field, an 
estimable young lady and native of Flushing, 
who at the time of her marriage was engaged in 
teaching in public schools, the result of this hap- 
py union being four children, namely : F. Adel, 
Edgar B., Walter Matheson and Gertrude Lo- 
werre, all living and a most interesting and gifted 
family. Mr. Lowerre takes an active interest 
in the advancement of the county's interest, 
both in its mercantile as well as its beneficial 
affairs. During the progress of the circus, held 
for the benefit of that grand institution, the 
Flushing Hospital and Dispensary, which took 
place in June, 1907, Mr. Lowerre performed her- 
culean labor for the hospital, and to his keen 
business intellect, and systematic work performed, 
by him contributed in a large measure to the 
great financial success that was scored for the 
worthy institution, which is entirely supported by 





MARQUIS a GOULD 



DANIEL S. JONES 




ROBERT M. DALGLEISH 




J. FRANK RYAN 





RICHARD H. WILLIAMS 



PETER M. COCO 





CHARLES WILLE 



JOHN C. HEMRICH 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



137 



voluntary contributions. He is a member of the 
Flushing Business Men's Association, Flushing 
Association, the Republican Club of the Fourth 
Assemblj' District of Queens County, and the 
Seventeenth Separate Company of the National 
Guard of New York, joined in 1884 having served 
nineteen years in the company, and received his 
honorable discharge November 4, 1905. 

WARREN B. ASHMEAD, postmaster at 
Jamaica, L.I., was born at that place October 16, 
1874, where he received a good education in the 
public schools. For some years Mr. Ashmead 
has been a prominent figure in public affairs, not 
only in his own community, but throughout the 
Borough of Queens as well. In politics he has 
always been a stanch Republican, but never an 
offensive partizan. He has filled a number of 
responsible public positions, prominent among 
which may be mentioned that of warden of 
Queens County Jail, chief clerk to the Commis- 
sioners of Jurors, and his present one of post- 
master of Jamaica. While these honors were 
conferred upon Mr. Ashmead through the party 
with which he affiliates, he has never forgotten 
the fact that he has always endeavored to serve 
all the people irrespective of politics. During his 
incumbency as postmaster, he has introduced a 
number of excellent features in the conduct of 
his office that have been of great public conve- 
nience. Mr. Ashmead is a member of the Jamaica 
and Tamaqua clubs, the Roosevelt and Richmond 
Hill Republican clubs, the Twenty-third Regi- 
ment, N.G.N. Y., Veteran Firemen, Jamaica F. 
& A.M. Lodge No. 546, Queens Borough Lodge 
B.P.O.E. No. 878, and of the Jamaica Baptist 
Church. On October 11, 1905, he married Miss 
Jessie M. Peterson, an estimable and popular 
young lady of Valatie, N.Y. Mr. and Mrs. Ash- 
mead are social favorites among the set in which 
they move. 

JOHN J. Mclaughlin, consulting engineer 
of the Borough of Queens, the son of William 
A. and Anastasia McLaughlin, was born at Ja- 
maica, L.I., and educated at the public schools 
of the latter place after which he attended the 
New York University, and graduated with honors 
from that famous institution. He chose civil 
engineering as his profession and has for a num- 
ber of years been one of the most successful 
engineers in Queens County. He was appointed 
county engineer of Queens, and after serving in 
this capacity, winning distinction, he was selected 
as consulting engineer of the Borough of Queens, 
under President Joseph Cassidy. Mr. McLaugh- 
lin is perhaps one of the best known men in his 
profession throughout Queens County. He has 
a strong personality, and an extensive acquaint- 



ance with all the leading citizens of the Bor- 
ough. In his present position, his services are 
regarded very highly. Mr. McLaughlin was mar- 
ried on November 21, 18S8, to Miss Adelaide M. 
Carroll, of Brooklyn. . They have a family of 
eight children, all livjng. In politics he is a Demo- 
crat, is a member of the American Society of 
Civil Engineers and the Society of Municipal 
Engineers. 

HON. LUKE A. KEENAN, former state sen- 
ator, son of Luke Keenan and Sarah Keenan, was 
bom April 10, 1872. He was educated at St. 
Patrick's Cathedral parochial school. His resi- 
dence in the Borough of Queens extends over a 
period of twenty years. He has always taken an 
active part in politics and in 1900 and igo.i he 
served as a member of the Assembly, having been 
elected on the Democratic ticket ; in 1902-04-05 
and 1906, he was a member of the Senate. Mr. 
Keenan belongs to the Knights of Columbus ; the 
Elks ; the Eagles, and is the standard bearer of 
the Luke A. Keenan Association. Senator Keen- 
an's public as well as his private record has 
always been above reproach. During his long 
residence in the Borough of Queens he has en- 
deared himself to all classes irrespective of politi- 
cal affiliations or religious creed. 

HERMAN VOSSNACK, JR., one of the prin- 
cipal and leading lumber merchants of Queens y 
County, the son of Herman and Emeline V. 
Vossnack, was born in Boston, Mass., July 31, 
1866. He graduated from the public school of New 
York City, after which he entered the College of 
the City of New York, and graduated with hon- 
ors in the class of 1885. For a number of years 
Mr. Vossnack studied and learned the rudiments 
of forestry, and is recognized and known 
throughout the country as one of its most able 
exponents and distinguished experts. He is popu- 
lar throughout the country with all the fores- 
try adherents, and the great luinber interests both 
North and South. His lumber yards in Long 
Island City, located on Davis Street, west of 
Jackson Avenue, and by the Long Island Rail- 
road tracks, are among the largest in the coun- 
try, and he has an extensive list of patrons, from 
all sections where they find the best quality of 
lumber the market affords, and their orders at- 
tended to with promptness and despatch. In 
politics, Mr. Vossnack is a stanch Republican, 
and is a member of the Republican County Com- 
mittee of Queens, though he has never aspired 
to public office, his large business interests in- 
cluding his forestry affairs requiring all of his 
excellent executive abilities. In 1889, Mr. 
Vossnack was married to Miss Sarah E. Con- 
over, an estimable lady, the result of this happy 



138 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



union being viz : — Valencia sixteen years of 
age, and Lloyd M., eleven years at this 
time of writing. In his domestic life, Mr. 
Vossnack devotes all of his leisure time in the 
company of his interesting family, to whom he 
is ardently devoted. He is ji vestryman of St. 
Johns P.E. Church of Long Island Cit}', a member 
of Island City Lodge No. 586, F. & A.M., Banner 
Chapter 214, R.A.M., St. Elmo's Commandery 
Knights Templar No. 57, A.A. Scottish Rite, 
Valley of New York, the B.P.O. Elks, Queens- 
boro Lodge, No. 878, and treasurer of both the 
Civic and Lincoln clubs of Long Island City. Mr. 
Vossnack has a striking personality, and num- 
bers among his personal friends a very large 
number of the leading citizens of Long Island 
City and the entire county, who admire him for 
his upright business qualities, his strict integrity, 
and his devotion to his duties in all the associa- 
tions he is so prominent in, besides the public 
spirit he display's in all matters pertaining to the 
advancement and enrichment of Queens County. 

JOHN M. PHILLIPS, under-sheriff for 
Queens County, and a son of John M. and Mar- 
garet Phillips, was born in New York City, Jan- 
uary 3, 1873, where he received his education in 
the public schools. He has re.sided in the pres- 
ent Borough of Queens for thirty years and is 
well and favorably known, and very popular. For 
some years Mr. Phillips was a successful con- 
tractor, a business which he followed until Jan- 
uary I, 1907, at which time he was appointed to 
his present position of under-sheriff. He is a 
member of the Democratic Club of Long Island 
City, and is the standard bearer of the J. M. 
Phillips Association. In 1903 he married Miss 
Helen G. Tudden, to whom one son has been 
born — John M., Jr. 

JOHN HENRY GERLACH, an eminent citizen 
and manufacturing stationer of College Point, the 
son of Frederick and Susannie (La Roche) Ger- 
lach, is a native of Barmen, Germany, where he was 
born on August 5, 1851. He was educated in the 
schools of his native place, and when he attained 
his majority he entered the German army, in the 
field artillery and after serving five years, the 
latter two years having been promoted as an 
officer, he received an honorable discharge, and 
the thanks of his government for the strict at- 
tention he paid to his duties and his faithful 
service. In 1878 Mr. Gerlach came to the United 
States and located in New York City where he 
in 1880 established himself as a manufacturing 
stationer, making a specialty of loose leaf bind- 
ing devices, which he conducts to-day at College 
Point on an extensive scale. As time advances, 
and its various interests multiply, there is need 



of men adapted to all kinds of pursuits — business, 
professional and mechanical — and by a happy 
dispensation of Providence, some men are adapt- 
ed to one calling and some to another. The fact 
that Mr. Gerlach is successful in the business 
in which he has always been engaged indicates 
in a marked manner his adaptation to this im- 
portant line of work. He is energetic, industri- 
ous and judicious ; his success proves that he 
possesses great ability and wise determination. 
Under his careful scrutiny his business has con- 
tinued increasingly prosperous ; he has gained a 
first-class reputation in financial circles. The 
connection Mr. Gerlach has had with manufac- 
turing stationers in this country has made for 
him a wide and popular acquaintance with most 
of the largest firms and corporations from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, the Canadas and Mexico, 
whom he constantly supplies. In his early busi- 
ness career Mr. Gerlach met with many trying 
vicissitudes, that would cause many a less strong 
mind to collapse. But through it all, though 
severe and almost disastrous at times, his in- 
domitable courage and remarkable will power 
prevailed at last, when he conquered. After leav- 
ing New York City he located in Flushing and 
made a heroic fight to establish a profitable busi- 
ness there. There he was surrounded with many 
hard trials and disappointments, but in the end 
triumphed and established a nucleus for what has 
become at College Point the largest, best equip- 
ped and most successful business of its kind in 
the country. On March 13, 1877, Mr. Gerlach was 
united in marriage to Miss Marie Roever ; the 
result of this happy union being four children, 
Franklin, who is twenty-seven years of age and 
married, and who holds a responsible position 
with his father in business in which he has been 
thoroughly trained; Laura, who is living; William 
and Ellen, now deceased. Mr. Gerlach and his 
family are prominent members of the Lutheran 
Church; he is also a member of the Alpenrosle 
Singing Society. In his beautiful home sur- 
rounded by his interesting family, Mr. Gerlach 
finds his greatest enjoyment. He contributes 
largely to every cause worthy of support, and 
possesses a public spirit to a high degree. As 
a citizen Mr. Gerlach commands the respect of the 
people in the community at large. He is a splen- 
did type of the home-loving citizen, so prominent 
in the German race, who have so largely con- 
tributed to the greatness of this republic. 

FRANCIS E. ANDREWS, electrician, son of 
Joseph and Annie Emily Andrews (nee Humph- 
rys), was born in Canada June II, 1869, and is 
the father of thirteen children, all of whom are 
living except one who died in infancy. In the 
public schools of Boston, Mass., and Brooklyn, 





CONRAD GARBE 



JAMES H. JOHNSON 





WILLIAM E. EVERITT 



FRANCIS J. MEAGHER 




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JOHN NIEDERSTEIN 



LAWRENCE CRESSES 




CHARLES FREDERrCKS 



THOMAS C. MCCORMICK 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



141 



X.Y., he laid tlie foundation of Iiis education. 
For the past lifteen years he has been a resident 
of Flushing and is a member of St. George's 
Episcopal Church. Identifying himself with tlie 
Democratic party for whom he has worked hard 
and faithfully and at present is a commissioner 
of condemnation proceedings in the Borough of 
Queens. He is a member of the Shinnecock 
Democratic Club, Court Flushing Foresters of 
America, Shinnecock Tribe I.O.R.iVI., Flushing 
Aerie Fraternal Order of Eagles, Flushing Busi- 
ness Men's Association, Empire Hose Company, 
Volunteer Firemen, Exempt Firemen's Associa- 
tion. On August 19, 1886, he married Miss Mary 
E. McCormack of Brooklyn, N.Y., to whom were 
born six children ; five are living, viz. : Thomas 
E., Frances E., Ruth E., Robert E. and Mary E. 
Mrs. Andrews died on June 6, 1897. On March 
17, 1899, he married Miss Mary A. Gill of Flush- 
ing; to this union seven children have been born, 
viz.: Grace G., Hazel C, Joseph H., Frank G. 
and the famous red, white and blue triplets, 
whose names are Margaret Cherry, Janet Caro- 
lyn and Elizabeth Colwell, who were born July 
4, 1907- 

HENRY HOWARD BOOTH, son of Colonel 
Charles A. Booth of Twenty-sixth U.S. Infantry, 
and Jane Flora, was born at Fort Benton, Mont., 
July 26, 1874. He received his early education in 
the public schools of Vergennes, Vt., and Harris- 
burg, Pa. After completing his common school 
education he took up the study of law with his 
uncle, the Hon. John H. Booth, at Plattsburgh, 
Clinton County, N.Y., 1894. He entered Union 
University Law School at Albany, N.Y., in 1895, 
graduating therefrom in 1897 near the head of his 
class and was shortly after admitted to the Bar 
of the State of New York. Mr. Booth has been 
a resident of Queens Borough since 1904. He is 
largely interested in real estate operations, and en- 
joys an extensive and lucrative law practise. His 
offices are located in the Century Building at the 
corner of Thirty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue, 
New York City. In politics he is a Republican. 
During the years of 1896-97 he was a member of 
the town board at Champlain, Clinton County, 
N.Y. In 1901-02 he was prosecuting officer of 
the city of Vergennes, Vt., filling these positions 
with great credit to himself and his constituents. 
Mr. Booth is a member of Champlain (Vt.) 
Lodge No. 58, I.O.O.F., Hudson Lodge 329, F. & 
A.M., and of the Episcopal Church. On June 
26, 1900, he married Miss Mary Lorain Rich of 
Richville, Vt. They have one child, Jane Eliza- 
beth. Mr. Booth is one of the fine types of 
Western manhood whose word is his bond. He 
is universally esteemed by all who have the pleas- 
ure of his acquaintance. 



-MINOR L. PLATT, real estate and insurance 
broker, with offices in New York and Long Island 
City, was born at Astoria, L.I., July 24, 1874, 
where he received his education at the old Fourth 
Ward public school, and later he took a thorough 
course at a well known commercial college in 
New York City. Mr. Piatt engaged in the real 
estate and insurance business several years ago, 
and has scored a signal success. He effects in- 
surance in companies of solidity and strength, 
and policies written through him have always 
been promptly paid without litigation and annoy- 
ance to the holders. Mr. Piatt is a prominent 
member of Sunswick Democratic Club and of 
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 
On June 27, 1907, he married Miss Caroline Died- 
erich of Astoria and still resides in the Astoria 
section of Long Island City. 

CHARLES HEDGES GARRETSON, drug- 
gist, son of Garret R. and Eliza (Bloodgood) 
Garretson, was born at Flushing, N.Y, He re- 
ceived a public school education at his native 
town, where he has resided all his life. He never 
entered political life nor has he ever held any 
public office. Mr. Garretson is a communicant of 
St. George's Episcopal Church, having been ves- 
tryman for fourteen years. In addition he is a 
member of Cornucopia Lodge No. 563, F. & 
A. M. Mr. Garretson is a progressive, public 
spirited citizen, and has always been foremost in 
contributing toward anything that has a tendency 
to promote the welfare of the community in 
which he has resided so long. 

THOMAS H. TODD, journalist, member of 
Assembly and son of the late Thomas H. Todd, 
founder of the Long Island City Star, and Lucie 
A. Todd, was born at Long Island City, January 
31, 1876. His primary education was obtained at 
the public schools of his native place. He then 
entered Flushing Institute, and later Vanderbilt 
College of Social Economics. At the latter in- 
stitution he made a study of social economics. 
For a number of years Mr. Todd filled a promi- 
nent position with the Long Island City Star. 
His reputation as a thorough journalist is along 
the higher lines of that profession. In 1906 he 
received the Democratic nomination for member 
of the Assembly to which he was elected by a 
large vote; he was reelected to that body again 
in 1907 by an increased vote. He is a member 
of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, New York 
Press Club, Queens Borough Lodge of Elks, As- . 
toria Club, the Long Island City Athletic Club, 
Fort Orange Club, Albany, N.Y., Typographical 
Union No. 6, as well as other social organiza- 
tions. On April 28, 1905, Mr. Todd married Miss 
Katherine A. Walsh of Long Island City. They 



142 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



reside at No. 245 Nott Avenue. During the 1907 
session of the Legislature, Mr. Todd was ap- 
pointed by Governor Hughes a member of the 
Investigating Committee of the National Guards, 
state of New York, being the only Democrat 
appointed from the Assembly. 

THOMAS GERVASE FOGARTY, the sub- 
ject of this sketch, like many of our hardy and 
successful men, had the good luck to be born 
and reared on a farm. He was born in 1875 on 
the old Locust Lawn Farm, situated on Jamaica 
Avenue, about a mile south of the Main Street 
depot of the Long Island Railroad, and where 
he still resides, his parents being the late Mr. 
and Mrs. James Fogarty, the father being 
among the largest and most successful farmers 
and dairymen of his time on Long Island. He 
received his education in the local public schools 
and at De La Salle Institute, New York City. His 
first commercial venture was in the milk busi- 
ness, which he successful!}' conducted up to six 
years ago, when he sold out to enter the under- 
taking and livery business, having acquired 
through purchase the business and entire fixtures 
of the late John F. Dunn. Since entering the lat- 
ter business he has made many improvements and 
added several fine equipments to its stock, which 
has brought much popularity to the establish- 
ment. Mr. Fogarty has had charge and conduct- 
ed many of the largest funerals in Queens Bor- 
ough and as far east as Port Washington. He 
is a graduate of the Renoward Training School 
for Embalmers of the State of New York. His 
popularity is attested by his membership in the 
following named organizations, viz. : St.. Mi- 
chael's Church Lyceum, Shinnecock Democratic 
Club, St. Vincent de Paul's Society, Holy Name 
Society, Aerie of Eagles, Order of Fore:Uers, 
Elks, Knights of Columbus, Flushing Boat Club, 
Business Men's Association and Flushing Maen- 
nerchor. In the community he is regarded as 
a man of high ideals and of the strictest integ- 
rity. 

GEORGE BELL CRANSTON, known for the 
past ten years in the real estate world, first in 
Westchester County and at present in Queens, 
and at this writing a member of the well known 
real estate firm of Dalgleish, Cranston & Yeager 
in Flushing, and also the manager of the firm 
of Cranston & Co., his own firm's New York 
City division at No. 7 East Forty-second Street, 
though not a resident of Queens County, has for 
a long time been interested in its welfare and 
numbers among its residents a host of warm 
personal friends. To secure success in business, 
a man must be energetic, persevering, capable and 
judicious. With these qualities he need have no 
fear of failure. Mr. Cranston possesses these 



characteristics to a large degree. The story of 
his business career is instructive, it shows the 
road to success is along the path of duty, and 
that industry combined with honesty and judg- 
ment, bring the possessor a fair measure of suc- 
cess. He has ever been prompt, courteous and 
considerate, and has never been known to inten- 
tionally wrong any one. Beginning in life with- 
out other capital than sound judgment, indomit- 
able energy, correct business principles, and un- 
questioned integrity, he has become successful 
by persevering industry, enterprise and judi- 
cious management. Mr. Cranston was born on 
January 14, 1876, at Manchester, England, the son 
of James W. and Elizabeth Cranston, both na- 
tives of Scotland. He is descended from a long 
race of most distinguished border fighters, and 
is also a lineal descendant of the famous Earl 
Cranston of the Scottish border. When a child 
his parents brought him to Peebles, Scotland, 
where he was educated in the public and high 
schools of the latter place. Having literary in- 
clinations, he became associated with the news- 
paper press, notably the Peebles News, for sev- 
eral years, and later the Peebles Advertiser, both 
of Scotland. After coming to New York, he 
continued his literary work, having been ap- 
pointed editor and manager of the Riverhead 
Courier of Riverhead, L.I. During his literary 
career, he was the author of a number of short, 
but very popular, stories. Since he entered the 
real estate and insurance business he has applied 
the same assiduous attention to his duties that 
characterized his successful management of the 
Riverhead Courier. On April 18, 1900, Mr. 
Cranston was married to Miss Mary Brundage 
of Armonk, Westchester County, N.Y. Mr. 
Cranston is a Republican in politics, but has 
never aspired to hold public office. He is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, also 
a prominent and active member of Olive Branch 
Lodge No. 31, I.O.O.F., New York City, and is 
present chaplain of the lodge. 

ROBERT M. DALGLEISH, real estate bro- 
ker, son of William and Ann Dalgleish, was 
born in Peebles, Scotland, November 20, 1864. 
The rudiments of his education he received in 
the grammar schools of his native land. Com- 
ing to this country in April, 1889, he embarked 
in the publishing business and continued it for 
a number of years. He has resided at Flushing 
for the last two years. In politics he affiliates 
with the Democrats. He is a communicant of 
the Presbyterian Church, a member of the Busi- 
ness Men's Association, of the Board of Real 
Estate Brokers and secretary of the Brooklyn 
Camera Club. His wife was Miss Emily C. 
Wilson of Brooklyn. 





BEAMWELL DAVIS 



WARREN B. ASHMEAD 




JOHN J. TRAPP 




MINOR L. PLATT 




HON. LUKE A. KEENAN 




WILLIAM KLEIN 





WILLIAM JOSEPH MOORE 



THOMAS H. TODD 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



145 



ALBERT MAXFIELD YAEGER, a member 
of Flushing's most active real estate firms, Dalg- 
leish, Cranston ■''- Yaeger," the son of Michael 
C. and Carrie M. Yaeger, was born on Febru- 
ary 25, 1879, at New Y'ork City. Real estate 
values are apt to change rapidly in any town 
or city, but particularly is this true of Flushing 
and vicinity, which is a residential place. The 
services, therefore, of a thoroughly well informed 
and absolutely reliable real estate man are those 
of inestimable value to the intending investor, or 
to one who wishes to dispose of his property. No 
other man in this vicinity is better informed re- 
garding the value of real estate than the subject 
of our sketch. Thoroughly devoted to the in- 
terests of those doing business with him or his 
firm, he displays characteristics which have en- 
gaged the regard of a large number of clients 
and acquaintances, and among the numerous real 
estate dealers of Flushing, none are more able 
to give better advice or offer greater induce- 
ments for investing capital than Mr. Yaeger. This 
prominent and active citizen of Flushing was 
educated in the public schools of New York City 
and after graduating learned the trade of en- 
graver and illustrator in which he became very 
successful. Ambition proved too great to per- 
mit of as quiet a life as was being led in this 
field and he engaged in the life insurance busi- 
ness in which he made marked success. Having 
an aptitude for real estate operations, he came 
to Flushing, where he has devoted his remark- 
able energies to this calling and occupies a lead- 
ing position among Flushing's most esteemed 
citizens. On April 22, 1903, Mr. Yaeger was 
united in marriage to Miss Blanche G. Little, 
an estimable and accomplished young lady of 
New York City, who departed this life on June 
20, 1904, leaving one child, Albert M. Yaeger, 
Jr., the result of this union, who also died on 
August 20, 1904. Mr. Yaeger is a member of 
St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church of New 
York City, a member of the Business Men's As- 
sociation of Flushing, the Third Ward Republi- 
can Club, Constitution Lodge No. 241, F. & A. 
M., Constitution Chapter No. 230, R.A.M., the 
Flushing Athletic Club, the Board of Real Es- 
tate Brokers of Flushing and Flushing Council 
Royal Arcanum. Although still in the dawn of 
a most brilliant and successful career, Mr. Yae- 
ger is rapidly advancing himself to the front 
rank of real estate operators, and in the mean- 
time becoming a prominent factor in the de- 
velopment of Queens County. It is men of this 
.stamp that are the bone and sinew of any 
community. 

AXEL JOHN SWENSON, son of Andrew J. 
and Mary L. Swenson, and prominent real estate 



operator of Xo. 3 Main Street, Flushing, was 
born at Washington, Warren County, N.J., Feb- 
ruary II, 1881. When he was six years of age 
his parents removed to Flushing where young 
Swenson attended the public schools. After 
leaving school he engaged in the real estate 
business. After getting a thorough insight to 
all the details, he, with his younger brother, 
James, opened their present oflice on Main Street. 
Their efforts have been crowned with success. 
Mr. Swenson is a member of Hoboken, N.J., 
Lodge No. 35, F. & A.M., St. George's Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church and St. George's Broth- 
erhood. In politics he is a Republican. Al- 
though a young man, he has made quite a repu- 
tation in the local real estate world. 

JAMES SYDNEY SWENSON, son of An- 
drew J. and Mary L. Swenson, and junior member 
of the real estate and insurance firm of Swen- 
son and Swenson of No. 3 Main Street, Flush- 
ing, was born at Washington, N.J., August 21, 
1885. He has resided in Flushing since he was 
two years of age. He attended the local public 
schools, graduating from the High School in the 
class of 1904. For some time Mr. Swenson was 
assistant manager of the law department in Ja- 
maica office of the Title Guarantee and Trust 
Company, which position he resigned to take 
up the real estate business. He is a member of 
Cornucopia Lodge No. 563, F. & A.M., St. 
George's Protestant Episcopal Church, and of the 
Seventeenth Separate Company I, N.G.N.Y. He 
resides at No. 209 .'\mity Street, Flushing. 

THOMAS C. CAPONE, master plumber, son 
of Angelo and Carmelia Capone, was born in 
Rome October 14, 1879. He attended the public 
schools at Steinway, L.I., having spent here the 
last twenty years. In his political views he fa- 
vors the principles embodied . in an independent 
democracy. He has never held any political 
office, but is a regular communicant of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church. In 1904 he married Rose 
B. Talasco, of whom he has one child, Salva- 
tore. Mr. Capone is a man who stands high in 
the community in which he resides. His suc- 
cess in business walks of life has been attained 
through strict attention to duty, as well as to 
the close observation of all obligations he enters 
into. 

HERMANN KOCH, real estate broker, son 
of Friedrich and Sophia Koch, was born in Ger- 
many September 28, 1861. He completed his edu- 
cation at the Royal Seminary for Teachers and 
taught school afterwards for a number of years. 
Ever since Mr. Koch acquired citizenship, twenty 
years ago, he has shown great interest in public 



146 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



affairs and in the welfare of the community he 
resides in. For two years he was member and 
secretary of the local school board, District No. 
42, Borough of Queens, and in that capacity he 
showed profound interest in the development of 
our educational system. His political views are 
those of the Democratic party and during 1904-5 
he was alderman of the Sixty-seventh Alder- 
manic District comprising old Long Island City. 
His name is enrolled on the rosters of many so- 
cieties, viz. : the Order of Elks, Royal Arcanum, 
Masonic Order, the Odd Fellows, Democratic 
Club, the Long Island City Turn Verein, and in 
addition is honorary president of the United 
Singing Societies of Long Island City. In 
August, 1887, he married Miss Emma Herrmann 
and he has two sons, Alfred, aged twelve, and 
Henry, eighteen years old, now attending High 
School at Long Island City. 

HON. JOSEPH SULLIVAN was born in 
New York City and educated in the public 
schools. After finishing his school course be- 
came an apprentice at the trade of cutter. 
After mastering this trade, he was made 
superintendent of a large establishment in New 
York. A number of years later he embarked 
in the hotel business, owning a few places in 
New York. About fifteen years ago Mr. Sul- 
livan moved to Corona, leasing the old-fashioned 
hostelry situated at the corner of Locust Street 
and Mulberry Avenue, and known as the "Village 
Home." At the time of his advent in the village 
of Corona the place was more of a country place, 
access to New York being by steam railroad, 
there being no trolley line at that time. After 
Mr. Sullivan resided in Corona a few years he 
was elected a member of Hook and Ladder Com- 
pany No. 6, and becoming a very active member. 
A short while afterward he was elected district 
chief, and at the expiration of his term he was 
nominated by his friends to chief of the Newtown 
Fire Department, serving three terms. On his 
retirement three years ago he was presented with 
a handsome gold watch and diamond fob, a com- 
pliment to him by his fellow members. During 
his incumbency in office he succeeded in having 
the department supply horses for all of the thir- 
teen fire companies in Newtown, along with drop 
harness and everything that was necessary for 
the betterment of the department, and also re- 
ceived through his energy a rig for the chief of 
the department. Mr. Sullivan was elected to the 
Assembly by the Democrats of the old First 
Assembty District of Queens County, which was 
next to the largest assembly district in New York 
State and one and one-half times as large as the 
largest Manhattan district. He was reelected and 
served three years. He was instrumental in pass- 



ing in Assembly the bill for payment of assess- 
ments by instalment ; legalizing the expendi- 
ture of money for topographical surveys, which 
was instrumental in bringing on the improved 
streets, there being no map adopted previously. 
After having upwards of fifty votes on the bill 
the Republican floor leader made an appeal to 
a party measure and Mr. Sullivan's amendment 
was defeated. Mr. Sullivan is a delegate to the 
State Firemen's Association, a trustee of the 
State Liquor Dealers' Association, president of 
Newtown Liquor Dealers' Association, a member 
of the Queens Borough Elks and a past worthy 
president of the Queens County Aerie, Order of 
Eagles. He is a member of the Board of Gov- 
ernors of the Democratic Club of Queens Bor- 
ough. He has an office at the corner of Jack- 
son Avenue and Fourth Street, Long Island City, 
where he is engaged in the surety business, issu- 
ing all kinds of surety bonds and making a 
specialty of excise bonds for liquor tax certifi- 
cates. 

JOSEPH H. QUINN, son of Hugh F. Quinn 
and Mary B. Quinn, was born in New York City, 
where he received a good education at the public 
school and also the Christian Brothers. For 
thirty years past he has been a resident of Long 
Island City, where he has been an influential and 
highly esteemed citizen of the Borough of 
Queens. Mr. Quinn is connected with the well 
known firm of H. F. Quinn & Sons, builders, 
at Nos. 18-22 Hunter's Point Avenue, Long 
Island City, and where they also conduct an ex- 
tensive cabinet business and manufacture of 
desks and office furniture of strictly high grade. 
The firm has a large plant for all kinds of cab- 
inet work, etc. Joseph H. Quinn is a Democrat in 
politics, but has never cared to hold public office, 
preferring to devote his time to his fast growing 
business. He is a member of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, Knights of Columbus, Royal Ar- 
canum and of the Democratic Club of Queens 
Borough. The more recent examples of the 
splendid work executed by the firm of H. F. 
Quinn & Sons, are shown in the fine new li- 
brary buildings of Flushing, Elmhurst and Rich- 
mond Hill, a view of each building occurring 
in another part of this volume. 

HENRY HALFORD HICKS, son of James 
and Ann Halford Hicks, was born in 1855 at 
Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. He received his edu- 
cation at Freshwater School, Yarmouth, and 
completed his studies at Milford, Hampshire. 
After leaving school he learned the trade of a 
blacksmith. For twenty-five years he has been 
a resident of the Borough of Queens, where he 
has carried on business as a smithy, and where 




PHILIP J. F. KRAEMER 




HENRY HALFORD HICKS 





FREDERICK KRAEMER 



HENRY WILLETT 





GEORGE \V. SCHAEFER 



HERMAN VOSSNACK, JR. 




HON. THOMAS M. QUINN 




WILLIAM ANTHONY BEAUMERT 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



149 



he is well and favorably known. In igo6 Mr. 
Hicks received the appointment of blacksmith 
for the department of Queens, a position he still 
retains. He is a member of Anchor Lodge, No. 
729, F. & A.M. (.and Noble Grand of White- 
stone Lodge No. 775, I.O.O.F.) ; is ordinary mem- 
ber Bingham Garrison, a member of Volunteer 
Fire Department of Whitestone, a member of 
Exempt Firemen of Flushing, the Grace Episco- 
pal Church of Whitestone. Mr. Hicks has twice 
been married; his first wife was Marj- Begeden 
of Flushing, deceased; his second wife's maiden 
name was Mary E. Gilchrist. Mr. Hicks's chil- 
dren were Mary Ellen, living, and Elizabeth, 
now deceased. 



to send him to England to complete his studies 
in the higher branches, so that he might be 
thorough in the work of the Christian ministry, 
to which he felt from his early boyhood he was 
called. On leaving home for England, he had 
scarcely reached the old country when the Civil 
War between the North and South commenced. 
He at once resolved to come to the United States 
and enlist in the United States Navy, and went 
to war, as he considered it to be a righteous act 
on his part to assist in destroying slavery, which 
then existed in the Southern States. It was in 
April, 1861, at Boston, he enlisted on board the 
frigate Minnesota, the flag-ship of the North At- 
lantic blockading squadron. It was not very long 



MARTIN. J. DOOLY, funeral director and 
undertaker, son of William and Bridget Dooly, 
was born in Tipperary, Ireland, November II, 
1862, where he attended the national school. His 
parents emigrating to America, young Dooly 
completed his studies at the Flushing High 
School. Since 1875 he has resided in Flushing. 
He is now the oldest as well as one of the lead- 
ing undertakers. He has a thorough knowledge 
of embalming, having received his diploma from 
the National Embalming College of No. 10 
Bond Street, New York City, in 1893. He is a 
member of the Roman Catholic Church, Knights 
of Columbus, Eagles, and for twenty-four years 
has been a member of the Volunteer Fire Depart- 
ment. Mr. Dooly married Miss Annie Buckley 
(now deceased) January 23, 1898. Three chil- 
dren were born, viz. : Mary, William and Mar- 
garet. 

BISHOP W. B. DERRICK, D.D., of the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church, was born 
in the Island of Antigua, B.W.I., in July, 1843. 
His parents were Scotch and West Indian. They 
were of the planters' class of that island, and 
strictly religious, the influence of which has had 
its effect upon the life and character of the 
Bishop all through his career. The Island of 
Antigua, in which he was born, is known as the 
Athens of the other islands, on account of its 
numerous institutions of learning, likewise the 
compulsory education system of the people. At 
the age of five years he attended a private school 
for a term of three years under the careful prepa- 
ration of a female teacher, who spared no pains 
in his preparatory studies. At the age of eight 
years he entered the Moravian Training School, 
where he remained until he had reached his 
eleventh j'ear, when he was again sent to the 
high school known as the Wilson High School, 
spending five years under the special training of 
the principal of that institution. On reaching 
his seventeenth birthday, his parents concluded . 




BISHOP W. B. DERRICK, D.D. 

after when the first battle on the Atlantic Coast 
took place at Hatteras Inlet between the fleet 
and the Confederate fortifications, commanded 
by ex-Governor Wise of Virginia, For twelve 
hours the Minnesota and her associate ships of 
war fought against the Confederate fortifications, 
until they were compelled to surrender to the 
Union forces. The second engagement was the 
memorable fight which took place between the 
Monitor and the Merrimac, March 8, 1862, which 
was then considered to be the greatest naval bat- 
tle in history up to that date. Twelve months 
after this occurrence he secured his discharge 
and returned to private life, when he fitted and 
prepared himself for the work of the ministry. 
In the year 1866 he entered the ministry of the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church as preacher 
and teacher among the freemen. Although very 



150 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



young as to years, he took an active part in the 
affairs of both Church and State which con- 
cerned the freemen or newly-eraancipated slaves. 
This brought him prominently before the publics' 
eye, so much so he was considered to be among the 
leaders in both platform and pulpit. In the con- 
test between Greelej' and Grant he won for him- 
self a name as a campaign orator, which caused 
for him to be sought after in all succeeding 
national campaigns, which gave to him the oppor- 
tunity to be often associated with such national 
platform speakers as Hon. J. G. Blaine, Thomas 
B. Reed, Senator Foraker, President McKinley, 
Senator Everetts, Depew, Ingersoll, Fred Doug- 
lass and Langston. Not only in this country has 
he been associated with orators and statesmen, 
but he has international fame both in Church and 
State. He attended several International Church 
Congresses. During the sessions of these gath- 
erings he impressed himself indelibly, so that he 
he was invited to preach the 355th anniversary 
sermon in the Church of the Martyrs or Ancient 
Catacombs in Canterbury Cathedral, England, the 
duty of which he performed with credit, as was 
told by all those who heard him. At the gather- 
ing of the Ecumenical Council in London, when 
Methodist representatives were gathered from all 
parts of the world, he was sought after and was 
associated with Bishops Hamilton, Galloway, 
Hartzell and Granbury. In this body he was a 
prominent member of the Business Committee, 
rendering valuable service to the assemblage. As 
a traveler his reputation is world-wide. He has 
visited Italy, France, Switzerland, Scotland, Ire- 
land, England, the South American states. West 
Indies and the leading cities of South Africa and 
the Madeira Islands. During his tour of Italy 
he visited Vesuvius, Rome, Genoa, Florence and 
Venice, then the mountains of Switzerland. The 
bishop was chosen to his present position in 
1896. There were 16 competitors, necessary to 
a choice 161 votes, but such was the popularity 
of the bishop among the ministry, that out of 216 
delegates he secured 206 votes on the first ballot 
— 45 more than was required, and was the only 
one chosen on that ballot. The British Lion 
says : "But a new note is being struck in the 
pulpit, a blending of culture and faith, a union 
of the modern and the mystic. Bishop Derrick 
represents it in his preaching. There is the at- 
mosphere of culture about his speech, but in it 
there throbs the passion of the evangelist. To 
him evolution either in science or in theology is 
no enemy of religion, and criticism is no destroyer 
of faith. The note of his preaching is clearly, ring- 
ingly spiritual, and in the deepest and most distinc- 
tive sense his teaching is evangelical. His message 
is positive and personal, and the common heart 
responds." As a preacher, the bishop's sermons 



are candid, tangible, solid and terminating a 
pleasant union of the material with the spiritual, 
presenting his arguments and appeals with an 
articulation as distinct and as lucid as his ges- 
ticulation is impressive. The bishop appears to 
advantage, of dignified bearing, easy gesture, with 
a mellow, strong voice, that always makes a 
favorable impression. In person he is stout and 
well proportioned, with a stern countenance, in- 
dicating inflexibility and positiveness, yet kind 
hearted and sympathetic — a true friend and a 
good neighbor. In his magnificent home. Bishop's 
Court, Lillian Park, is to be seen a letter beauti- 
fully encased in a rich gold frame, from King 
Edward VII, in recognition of a most sublime 
eulogy, which was delivered by the bishop on the 
life and character of his late lamented mother, 
Queen Victoria. The bishop resides at Flushing, 
and has lived there for fully twenty-one years, 
and is ranked among the good and respectable 
citizens of that community. 

PHILIP J. F. KRAEMER, dealer in lumber 
and coal, son of John and Elizabeth Kraemer, 
was born in the City of New York September 12, 
1847. He attended the public school at College 
Point, L.I., where he has resided for the last 
fifty-two years. He has never been interested in 
politics, nor ever held any political ofiice. The 
only society of which he is a member is An- 
chor Lodge No 729, F. & A.M. Mr. Kraemer 
married Miss Josephine Bank September 11, 1881 ; 
two children have been born to this union, Isa- 
bella Amelia and Alfred Roberts. 

FREDERICK KRAEMER, connected with the 
American Hard Rubber Company, was born at 
College Point August 30, 1857. He completed his. 
education at the Flushing High School. From 
birth until 1885 he lived at College Point, but is 
now a resident of Brooklyn. He never took an 
active part in politics nor has he held any public 
office. He married Miss Agnes Schneeloch No- 
vember 2, 1885, and there were in all seven chil- 
dren born, Else Marie, Waldo Lawrence, Erna 
Charlotte, Frederick Emil, John, William and' 
Henry, the two last named being dead. 

J. FRANK RYAN, real estate, insurance 
and city marshal, son of James and Eliza Ryan, 
was born at Flushing, N.Y., May 18, 1864. He 
obtained his education at St. Michael's School. 
His residence at Flushing has been permanent. 
He is a believer in Democratic principles and 
holds the office of city marshal and chief of the- 
Flushing Fire Department. The following so- 
cieties count him among their members : Fra- 
ternal Order of Eagles; St. Michael's Lyceum;. 
St. Vincent De Paula; Holy Name Society; Shin- 




CHARLES HANCE 





THOMAS GERVASE F0GA8TY 




GEORGE WASHINGTON HILL 



JOSEPH FLANAGAN 





FRANCIS E. ANDREWS 



HERMAN KOCH 




HON'. JOSEPH SULLIVAN 




JOSEPH H. QUINN 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



153 



necock Democratic Club ; Young America Hose 
Company No. 2; and St. Michael's Church. He 
entered matrimony June 7, 1905, with Miss Mar- 
garet Reilly. Their only child, James Patrick, 
died soon after birth. 

JOHN J. FALLON, contractor, and a son of 
Eugene and Bridget Fallon, was born in New 
York City in 1839. He was a pupil of the old 
Fortieth Street school. After leaving school he ob- 
tained a situation paying twenty-five cents a day in 
a paper mill, and later took another position in a 
steel factory, tempering steel. Not finding the 
latter work satisfactory, he decided to learn the 
trade of a lather, which later on he engaged in 
business as a contractor on his own account, and 
in which he has been very successful. He has 
been a resident of Queens Borough since 1872. 
He is a member of the Exempt Firemen's Asso- 
ciation and of St. Michael's Roman Catholic 
Church. On October 6, 1872, he married Miss 
Julia Delaney of Flushing. Seven children have 
been born, viz. : John J., Peter T., Eugene, Ed- 
ward, Mary, William and Francis, all of whom 
are living. 

JOHN J. HOGAN, JR., alderman, son of John 
J. and Catherine Hogan; was born at Flushing 
July 14, 1873, and was educated at St. Michael's 
School of the same place. For some years he 
was engaged in the meat business, but now holds 
a responsible position in the Department of High- 
ways for the Borough of Queens. Mr. Hogan is 
a member of the Shinnecock Democratic Club, 
the Roman Catholic Church, Knights of Colum- 
bus and the Young America Hose Company, 
Volunteer Fire Department. He affiliates with 
the Democratic party in politics, always devoting 
a considerable amount of his time furthering its 
success. On February i, i8go, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Josephine A. Ryan of Flushing. 
They have four living children — John Francis, 
Thomas, Dorothy and Catherine. In October, 
1907, the aldermanic Democratic convention of 
the Sixty-ninth District unanimously nominated 
Mr. Hogan for alderman. At the following No- 
vember election he was triumphantly elected by a 
majority of four hundred over the Republican 
and Independence League candidates. This dis- 
tinction awarded by the people of Flushing and 
the aldermanic district to Mr. Hogan was a per- 
sonal testimonial to his ability, fitness and quali- 
fications for the important post. It may also be 
assumed that Mr. Hogan will hereafter be an 
important factor in the political affairs of Queens 
County. 

WILLIAM CONNORS, son of William and 
Mary Connors, was born March i, 1857, at New 



Ross, County Wexford, Ireland. He came to 
this country April 4, 1874, and settled at College 
Point, Third Ward, Borough of Queens, where 
he still resides and is engaged in the wholesale 
beer and ale business, as well as building and 
real estate speculation. He is a self-made man 
and by his shrewd business tactics and real es- 
tate speculation he has amassed a large amount 
of property, which is estimated to be worth over 
one hundred thousand dollars, the most of it 
being income property. Mr. Connors is a Dem- 
ocrat and filled the office of town trustee of the 
town of Flushing for several years. He is a 
member of C.B.L. ; Elks; Eagles and College 
Point Club. On February 14, 1884, he married 
Miss Mary Cashin of Whitestone; they have 
, seven children, viz. : Edward S., William C, 
Marguerite A., Mabel M., Raymond, Jerome and 
Loretto. Mr. Connors is highly regarded as a 
good citizen. He is one of the substantial busi- 
ness men of the College Point section of the 
Borough of Queens. 

WILLIAM JOSEPH MOORE, merchant, de- 
ceased, was born at Brooklyn, New York City, 
being a son of James and Joanna Moore. He 
attended the public schools of his native place, 
after which he took a thorough course at Brown's 
Business College. Mr. Moore was a member of 
the Roman Catholic Church, Royal Arcanum, Or- 
der of Foresters, Knights of Columbus, Holy 
Name Society, Volunteer Fire Department, Mu- 
tual No. I Fire Company and of the Business 
Men's Association. On December 26, 1888, Mr. 
Moore married Miss Ellen Browne of Brooklyn. 
Six interesting children were born to the union, 
viz. : Arthur H., Adele, William B., Helen, Mari- 
on and Cynthia. Mr. Moore was a man of ster- 
ling qualities and was much beloved by all who 
had the pleasure of his acquaintance. He always 
maintained a high standard for honesty, integrity 
and uprightness. His standing in the community 
was of the highest. 

GEORGE W. SCHAEFER, real estate oper- 
ator and son of Philip and Elizabeth Schaefer, 
was born in New \''ork City, where he attended 
and was graduated from the old Forty-seventh 
Street public school. For several years he car- 
ried on a carriage and wagon manufacturing es- 
tablishment in New York. In 1893 he became 
a resident of the Borough of Queens, where he 
opened a real estate office which he still conducts. 
Mr. Schaefer is a member of Greenpoint Lodge 
No. 403, F. & A.M., , and is a thirty-second de- 
gree Mason ; past chancellor of Sparticus Lodge, 
K. of P. ; past district deputy I.O.R.M. ; ex-cap- 
tain of Forty-seventh Regiment, N.G.N. Y. : vet- 
eran of the Twenty-second Regiment of New 



154 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



York City, and a member of the Veteran Corps, 
Forty-seventh Regiment, New York City. In pol- 
itics he is a Democrat. On June 30, 1904, Mr. 
Schaefer married Mrs. Emily Y. Schaefer; two 
children have been born by the first wife, G. 
Arthur, living, and William E., now deceased. 

THOMAS DOWLING, retired, son of Pat- 
rick and Mary Dowling, was born in Dublin, Ire- 
land, April 16, 1816. It was in the public schools 
of Dublin that he received the rudiments of his 
education. Since 1849 he has resided permanently 
at Flushing, L.I. Politics never occupied his at- 
tention to any extent and he has not been an 
office holder. In his religious belief he is a Ro- 
man Catholic. In the year 1858 he married Mary 
Savage and they had six children, of whom four 
are living and two deceased. Their names are 
Thomas, Ann, Mary, Theresa, Mary and Clara. 

GUSTAVE ANDERSON, an old and well 
known citizen of Flushing, was born in Lidkop- 
ing, Sweden, July 14, 1847, where he obtained an 
education in the public schools. In 1872 he 
came to the United States. He settled in 
Boston until 1876, when he came to New York 
and settled in Flushing in 1890, where he has con- 
tinued to reside ever since. Having learned the 
trade of a cabinet maker when a young man he 



warehouse in Flushing, a picture of which appears 
herein, which is known as the Flushing Storage 
Warehouse Co., and erected and completed in 




THE FLUSHING STORAGE WAREHOUSE. 

has continued following the calling with great 
success. Mr. Anderson is a member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, the Business Men's As- 
sociation of Flushing. Mr. Anderson was the in- 
stigator of erecting the first fire-proof storage 




GUSTAVE ANDERSON 

1907. The building is an imposing structure and 
contains the most modern improvements, being 
fire-proof in all its essentials, with fire-proof vaults 
for the storage of valuables. The company was 
incorporated with the following officers : Gus- 
tave Anderson, president ; Frank A. Collins, vice- 
president ; F. R. Smart, treasurer, and A. Vander- 
water, secretary. This enterprise, so valuable to 
the citizens of Flushing, delineates the progress- 
ive character of its founder, Mr. Gustave Ander- 
son. On July 10, 1873, he married Miss Anna 
Paulina Nordenbom of Andover, Mass., but a 
native of Sweden. The children born to the 
union are : Gustavius E., Frank B., Anna, Ma- 
tilda, George F., Ferdinand, Louisa P., all of 
whom are living, and Philip B., deceased. Mr. 
Anderson is purely a self-made man, possessing 
the usual pluck and courage of the hardy race 
from which he springs. He is highly esteemed 
as a citizen and neighbor. 

GEORGE A. STILLWAGGON, carpenter, son 
of David Henry and Rachel Acker Stillwaggon, 
was born in the City of New York, October 28, 
1824. At first he attended the public school and 
the Collegiate School, 115 Franklin Street, New 
York, and when, in 1838, he moved to Flushing, 
he attended the school managed by Geo. Huntsman. 
He started out in life as a bookkeeper in a gro- 
cery store, buying out his employer after a while. 




ALBERT MAXFIELD YAEGER 




HENRY HOWARD BOOTH 





GEORGE BELL CRANSTON 



JOHN HENRY GERLACH 




JOSEPH B. STILL WAG CON- 




EDWARD KRON 





GEORGE A. STILLWAGGON 



ALBERT EDWARD PECHETTE 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



157 



Then he engaged in the nursery business and final- 
ly became a carpenter, his specialty being scrolls, 
brackets and turning. Since May, 1838, he has 
lived at Flushing. For four years he was trus- 
tee of the village of Flushing. As an energetic 
member of the Sons of Temperance, he filled all 
the offices in the gift of that society. Besides he 
was a member of the Volunteer Fire Department 
of Flushing, which in 1844 installed the first en- 
gine in that village, and is the only foreman and 
member of the old company living. His wife 
was a Miss Virginia Pinkham of Flushing, and 
of the six children, Minnie, Frederick, David, 
Lincoln, Katy and Eugene, the latter three are 
deceased. Mr. Stillwaggon organized the first 
hook and ladder company in Flushing and was 
its first foreman. He is the only member of 
that company at present living. 

JOSEPH B. STILLWAGGON, carpenter, son 
of Joseph and Abigail Stillwaggon, was born at 
Flushing, L.L, May 6, 1828. He attended the 
public schools of his native town and has been 
a lifelong resident of that section. Politically, he 
is of the Republican persuasion. He held the 
office of postmaster of Flushing for two terms, 
was constable for one year and a policeman for 
fourteen years. For a period of more than 
twenty years he was connected with the Long 
Island News Company. He attends, the Metho- 
dist Church and is an exempt fireman. Mr. Still- 
waggon was married twice, his first wife being 
a Miss Mary Post, his second wife, Miss Sarah 
Gillen. Of the ten children born, six are living, 
namely: Sarah Van Nostrand, Belle Morse, 
Thomas, Hattie Oddy, Ida Ovis and William G. 

CHARLES HANCE, formerly captain of 
Flushing Police Department, son of Benjamin and 
Annie Hance, was born at Astoria, L.L, April 10, 
1837. He received his education in the public 
schools and has passed all his life at Flushing. 
Early in life he learned the trade of bricklayer 
and plasterer and with his partner, Richard Dow- 
ing, he did work on the Galeburg cottage, on the 
Town Hall at Flushing, the gas works of Queens 
County, the savings-bank, the high school and 
other buildings. In 1879 he was under-sheriff of 
Queens Borough ; became captain of police on 
May 3, 1883, and remained in office until con- 
solidation of the Greater City took place, when 
he retired after twenty-four years of service. In 
addition, he was for a long time janitor of the 
Town Hall and member of the Board of Trustees. 
Mr. Hance attends the Dutch Reformed Church 
and belongs to Pacific Lodge No. 85, I.O.O.F. 
On January 8, 1858, he married Miss Marie 
Elizabeth Srhith. Ten children were born : Maria 
Elizabeth. Minnie Estella, Charles Edgar, Jennie 



Francesca, William Edward, Florence Eva, Al- 
fred Elton, Albert Elmer, Jessie Edith, Alfred E., 
and an infant being deceased. 

VAN RENSSELAER SWEZEY, coal and 
lumber dealer, son of Gilbert H. and Susan E. 
Swezey, was born in the city of New York, in 
February, 1878. After graduating from the pub- 
lic schools, he attended a course at the Blair 
Academy, Blairstown, N.J. His residence at Bay- 
side, L.L, extends over three years. In his politi- 
cal convictions he pins his faith upon an inde- 
pendent party. Mr. Swezey is a regular attend- 
ant at the Jamaica Presbyterian Church and a 
member of the Bayside Yacht Club. Mr. Swezey 
is a man of pleasing personality and enjoys a 
wide acquaintance both in social and commercial 
walks of life. Being a man of strict business in- 
tegrity he has built up a large and growing trade 
in the lumber and building line. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON HILL, son of 
Adam C. and Mary E. (McDonnell) Hill, was 
born at Brooklyn, N.Y., March S, 1877. Mr. Hill 
is a graduate of Public School No. 33 and of 
Long Island Business College of Brooklyn. On 
March 13, 1905, Mr. Hill became proprietor of 
the old historic Crocheron House at Bayside, 
L.L, succeeding a Mr. Monanhan. He refitted 
and overhauled the entire place in a befitting 
style, doing thereafter the largest business in the 
history of the establishment. Mr. Hill is now 
the general manager for his brother, Edward, 
who has extensive coal interests in Brooklyn. He 
is a member of Seneca Democratic Club _of 
Brooklyn and of the Church of the Transfigu- 
ration. Mr. Hill is a man of agreeable manners 
and has a host of friends among people of all 
classes. In business matters he is a man of high 
capabilities whose judgment is always considered 
sound. 

MORRIS MILLER, general contractor and 
house wrecker, son of Levi and Anna Miller, was 
born in the city of New York, July, 1876. Here 
he also attended the public schools. As regards 
his political views he does not side with any of 
the two dominant parties, but favors a program 
independent of either. Mr. Miller married Miss 
Fannie Stone, September, 1900. Two children 
were born, Laura and Leonard. Mr. Miller now 
occupies the position as the leading house wrecker 
in Queens County. He is practical in his work 
and performs it in such a methodical manner that 
all persons with whom he transacts business are 
perfectly satisfied with his modern methods of 
doing work, his motto being that of square 
dealing. 



158 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



ALBERT EDWARD PECHETTE, electrical 
engineer, and the youngest of a family of fifteen 
children, was born July 21, 1877, at Cohoes, N.Y. 
For the past twenty years he has been a resident 
of Long Island City, where he attended the First 
Ward public school and later graduated from the 
Twenty-eighth Street school in New York City. 
He is also a graduate of the International Cor- 
respondence School of Scranton, Pa. He served 
for a period of seven years as an electrical en- 
gineer in the Quartermaster's Department on 
Governor's Island. Politically Mr. Pechette is a 
Democrat. He is a member of Erie (Flushing) 
Lodge No. 583, Eagles ; the J. J. Phillips Asso- 
ciation and St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. 
On July 14, 1896, he married Miss Lilly Kerr of 
Long Island City. Three children have been born 
— Eulalia, John Augustin and Francis. 

GARRISON'S HOTEL, Willard C. Garrison, 
proprietor, adjoins Fort Totten on the Long Is- 
land shore opposite Fort Schuyler, surrounded 
by ample shaded grounds, running to the water's 
edge. The hotel is large and commodious, with 
broad and inviting piazzas. On the shore are a 
large pavilion and bathing houses. The cuisine 
at Garrison's is unsurpassed. Dinners are served 
a la carte, and include all the delicacies of the 
season. Wines and liquors have been selected 
with the greatest care. Mr. Garrison makes fish 
dinners a specialty. Garrison's Hotel may be 
reached by Long Island Railroad from Long Is- 
land City to Whitestone, or Bayside, or by car- 
riage or auto over the best roads on the island, 
via Thirty-fourth Street, Ninety-second and Nine- 
ty-ninth Street (East River) ferries, easily ac- 
cessible from Brooklyn City Hall via Fulton 
Street to Jamaica Avenue, and Jamaica. Beauti- 
ful shady country roads from there through 
Flushing to Fort Totten. Distance twelve miles. 
This resort is headquarters for automobilists. 
A prominent attraction is the dress parade and 
band concert at Fort Totten daily. There are 
electric lights on all roads leading to this resort. 
The hotel has been under the proprietorship of 
the Garrisons since 1886, at which time Charles 
Garrison, father of Willard Garrison, the present 
proprietor, came into control. After his death his 
son Howard operated it for two years. Since 
then Willard Garrison has successfully managed 
it and has added many new and comfortable fea- 
tures. He can accommodate about three hundred 
guests for meals per day. 

EDWARD KRON, merchant tailor, son of 
John and Catherine Kron, was born in California, 
March 5, 1865. When he was four years of age 
his parents removed to Long Island City, where 
he attended the public schools and where he has 



since resided. Mr. Kron is one of the leading 
tailors of Long Island City and conducts a first- 
class establishment at No. 346 Jackson Avenue. 
In politics he is a stanch Republican ; he served 
for nine years as an active member of the First 
Ward Commission. He is a member of the Civic 
Club and formerly vice-president of Queens 
Borough and of the Long Island City Turn 
Verein. He is a man of high standing and en- 
joys the confidence of all who know him. 

GEORGE FRENZ, a well known citizen of 
Long Island City, was born in New York Decem- 
ber 20, 1881. He obtained his education in the 
public schools both at New York and Long Island 
City. For the past twenty-six years he has re- 
sided in the Borough of Queens, where he is very 
popular. Mr. Frenz is the proprietor of Frenz's 
Casino, situated on Jackson Avenue. The resort 
is one of the best known, as well as one of the 
most highly respectable places of its kind on Long 
Island, and is the scene of many notable gather- 
ings of social organizations during the spring and 
summer months. Mr. Frenz is a member of a 
large number of societies and clubs, notable 
among which are the Civic Club and the John 
M. Phillips Association of Long Island City, the 
Knickerbocker, Minnevaska and Pequonock club? 
of New York City. On November 6, 1901, he 
married Miss Mary Burkhardt of New York. 
They have two children, viz : Grace and Florence. 

FRANCIS X. DUER, a well known hotel 
keeper, was born at College Point, L.I., June i, 
1872, where he received his education at St. 
Fidelis Parochial School. Mr. Duer has always 
continued to reside in his native place, where he 
is considered among the substantial and progress- 
ive citizens. In politics he is a stanch Demo- 
crat, and as a testimonial to his popularity he has 
served two terms as an assemblyman from his 
district. He is a member of the Roman Catholic 
Church, Adelphi Social Club, Owl Social Club, 
College Point Wheelmen, is the standard bearer 
of F. X. Duer Association, is a member of the 
Eagles, Aztec Tribe, I.O.R.M., St. Fidelis Society, 
Enterprise Hose Company, No. 2, and Exempt 
Firemen's Association. On January 7, 1903, Mr. 
Duer married Miss Rhoda W. Grell. Two chil- 
dren have been born to the union, one of whom 
is deceased; the living child is Francis X., Jr. 

PERCIVAL EDWARD MAURER, real estate 
broker, son of Andrew Jackson and Julia B. 
Maurer, with the descent dating back to the time 
of the Duke of Wellington, was born in the state 
of New Jersey, March 31, 1882. Having grad- 
uated from the Long Island city grammar and 
high schools, he completed a business course at 





HENRY C. BOTJER 



GEORGE FRENZ 





JOHN J. HOCAN, JR. 



FRANCIS X. DUER 





JOHN J. FALLON 



MORRIS MILLER 




MARTIN J. DOOLY 




JAMES J. MULLIGAN 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



161 



Wright's Business College, entering afterwards 
the Maryland Institute, where he made architec- 
ture and structural estimating his special subjects. 
For twenty-four years he has been a resident of 
Queens Borough, his home now being Flushing, 
L.I. He is not affiliated with any political party. 
Mr. Maurer is a member of Moose Head Dra- 
matic Society, Harmony and Technic Club and 
the Independent Order of Foresters. 

CHARLES MORINA, real estate broker, son 
of Philipse and Rose Morina, was born in Italy, 
June, 1877. After completing a course in the 
public schools, he graduated from the high school. 
He has lived at Corona, L.I., for more than ten 
years. In his political views he favors, like many 
others, a program independent of either of the 
two great dominant parties. Mr. Morina is a 
member of the Order of Foresters, the Second 





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REAL ESTATE OFFICE OF CHARLES MORINA, 
CORONA, L.I. 

Ward Independent Club and the Taxpayers Asso- 
ciation of Corona. He is married and has one 
child, Marie Rose. Mr. Morina is one of 
the progressive citizens of the Corona section 
and has done much toward its development. His 
business methods are up-to-date, which, coupled 
with his strict integrity, has been a large factor 
in his success. Philipse Morina, father of the 
subject of this sketch, was an Italian cavalier and 
came to America about twelve years ago. He is 
still a well preserved man of dignified bearing and 
is a prominent member of the Masonic order. 

HENRY C. BOTJER, son of John Henry and 
Meta Adelheid Botjer, was born in Germany, 
July 9, 1872. He obtained his education in the 
public schools. For a period of fourteen years 
he has been a resident of Long Island City. In 
politics he is a stanch supporter of Democratic 
principles. Mr. Botjer is a member of the Dutch 



Reformed Church of Long Island City, Advance 
Lodge No. 63s F. & A.M., Enterprise Lodge 
No. 228 Knights of Pythias, the Fraternal Order 
of Eagles, Long Island City Aerie No. 1509, the 
Elks, Queensborough Lodge No. 878 B.P.O. Elks, 
the North German Society of Long Island City, 
the Astoria Maennerchor, the Mutual Benefit As- 
sociation. On January 5, 1898, he married 
Augusta Schwanenfliigel, to whom three children 
were born, viz. : Henrietta, Florence and Henry 
C, Jr. 

SOLOMON KUGELMAN, son of Michael and 
Frederica Kugelman, was born March 9, 1869, at 
Long Island City. He attended, when a boy, the 
Old Fourth Ward public school in Astoria. He 
has always resided in the town of his nativity. 
For some years he was engaged in the hotel busi- 
ness, also in the poultry trade. Politically he is 
a Democrat and was one of the first delegates 
named to the Borough Convention of Queens. 
He has attended all Democratic conventions as a 
delegate. In 1906 he was alternate at the Buffalo 
Convention for state officers. He is a member 
of Chapter No. 878, B.P.O.E., being a charter 
member. He is also a member of Exempt Fire- 
men of Long Island City, Old Hunter (No. 4) 
Engine Company, of Long Island City; he was 
one of the original organizers of Queens Borough 
Democratic Club. Mr. Kugelman's father was 
the original poultry dealer of Long Island City, 
in which he made a fortune. His patrons were 
numbered among the wealthy New York families 
with whom he did a large business. 

JAMES J. MULLIGAN, contractor, son of 
Thomas and Ann Mulligan, was born September 
10, 1864, at Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was edu- 
cated at the public schools, graduating from the 
high school. Mr. Mulligan has established a large 
business as a general contractor in Queens Bor- 
ough. His business operations are not confined 
to local fields but extend over the state of New 
York. He is a Democrat in politics, and in 1891 
served as clerk to the finance committee of the 
Board of Aldermen in Long Island City before 
consolidation with the greater city of New York. 
He is a member of Advance Lodge (Astoria), 
F. & A.M., Enterprise Lodge, I.O.O.F, Knights 
of Pythias, Enterprise Company, U.R., the Eagles, 
Veteran Firemen's Association, Acma Fishing 
Club, the Luke A. Keenan Association, and is the 
standard bearer of the James J. Mulligan Asso- 
ciation. He is also deputy grand chancellor, 
Tenth District, lieutenant uniform rank. On 
January 14, 1891, Mr. Mulligan married Miss 
Mamie Muller. They have two children, James 
J., Jr., and Anna. 



162 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



PETER M. COCO, one of the foremost 
architects of New York City, as well as gen- 
eral superintendent of buildings, was born at 
Brooklyn (N.Y.) September 25, 1870. His 
rudimentary education was obtained at the 
public schools of Old Long Island City. After 
completing his studies there he engaged in the 
higher branches at Cooper Institute, New 
York City, graduating therefrom in 1892, with 
high honors, receiving the first prize. In 1884 
Mr. Coco first began the study of architecture. 
He has in the course of his profession erected 
the largest factory buildings in the Borough 
of Queens, namely, the Atlantic Macaroni 
Company's structure, and the Di Nobili Cigar 
Factory, at Ravens wood, L.I.; also a great 
number of dwellings, apartments, lofts and 
office buildings. Mr. Coco has designed and 
erected many churches in the boroughs of 
Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn. One of 
the crowning glories of his architectural life is 
that of the new court-house of Queens County, 
a view of which appears elsewhere in this vol- 
ume. In the construction of this building Mr. 
Coco had many obstacles to overcome. The 
old structure destroyed by fire, only the shell 
remained. Without removing the walls he has 
reconstructed the building so that it has be- 
come a "thing of beauty," and stands as a mon- 
ument to his genius as an architect. Mr. Coco 
has been a resident of the Borough of Queens 
for the last thirty years. He has always affili- 
ated with the Democratic party. For five 
years he was draughtsman to the Fire and 
Water Board of Long Island City. He is a 
member of the Second Ward Democratic Club 
and a thirty-second degree Mason. On Sep- 
tember 27, 1893, Mr. Coco was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Mary Palumneri. They have two 
children, viz. : Santina, aged thirteen years, and 
Vincent, aged seven years. Mr. Coco's busi- 
ness offices are located at No. 114 East Twenty- 
third Street, New York Cit\f. He resides in 
Meyers Avenue, Windfield, L.I. 

HONORABLE JOSEPH BERMEL was born 
in Brooklyn April 8, i860. He came of sub- 
stantial German stock and his parents were 
among the early settlers in the eastern section 
of Brooklyn. Mr. Bermel received his education 
in the public scliools of Brooklyn and at the 
age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a stone- 
cutter. With the energy that has dominated all 
his subsequent career he early received recog- 
nition from the man with whom he was appren- 
ticed and he became a foreman in the establish- 
ment at the close of his term of apprenticeship. 
Later he was offered a partnership in the busi- 
ness but he decided to come to Queens County 



where cemeteries were being laid out and the 
field for business ventures was just opening. He 
established a business as marble cutter in Middle 
Village. The business was a success from the 
start and Mr. Bermel executed many large and 
important contracts. Artistic merit and finished 
production have been the mark of all work 
turned from his shop. Mr. Bermel still has in- 
terest in two marble works, one at Middle Vil- 
lage and one at St. John's cemetery. Each is 
now managed by one of his sons. As a result 
of his efiforts in business Mr. Bermel is pos- 
sessed of a considerable fortune. Mr. Bermel 
early took an interest in politics. He was an 
attendant at all the conventions of the Demo- 
cratic party almost from the time he estab- 
lished his residence in the town. But he refused 
to accept office until 1896. That year the people 
of Newtown demanded improved roads. The 
old conservative element of the town was op- 
posed to progress, however. Mr. Bermel was 
the candidate of the progressives and he made 
one of the hottest canvasses ever known in the 
town. Election day of that year was long re- 
membered. It was in March and one of the 
worst days of the year. The roads were cov- 
ered with slush and snow and many were hub- 
deep with mud. Yet the largest vote in the his- 
tory of the town was brought out. Many started 
from their homes with the intention of voting 
against the idea of new roads and Mr. Bermel, 
the champion of that cause, but after their ex- 
periences in reaching the polls they voted for 
him. The result was that Mr. Bermel was elect- 
ed by a handsome majority. After becoming .a 
member of the Queens County Board of Super- 
visors, he immediately demanded improvements. 
The first road improved was the macadamizing 
of the old Williamsburg road on Metropolitan 
Avenue from Jamaica to the Drj' Harbor road. 
This made what was once the worst and almost 
impassable dirt road one of the finest highways 
in the town and opened up for the farmers an 
artery of travel which was a positive boon to 
them and the traveling public. After that there 
was no opposition to the plans of Supervisor 
Bermel. Mr. Bermel continued in office until 
the date of consolidation. Then he retired and 
gave his attention to his private business. But 
he took an active part in the factional contests 
in his ward and was the leader of the faction 
favorable to Joseph Cassidy. When Joseph Cas- 
sidy took office as borough president in 1902 he 
appointed Mr. Bermel commissioner of public 
works. Mr. Bermel held that office until Octo- 
ber, 190S, when he resigned as he had been nom- 
inated for the borough presidency of Queens by 
the Republicans and Independence League in op- 
position to the reelection of Mr. Cassidy. That 





AXEL JOHN SWENSON 



WOLCOTT NOBLE 




JAMES SYDNEY SWENSON 




THOMAS C. CAPONE 




LUMBER YARD, STOREHOUSES, DOCKS, ETC., OF THE VAN R. SWEZEY COAL AND LUMBER CO., 

BAYSIDE, LONG ISLAND 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



165 



campaign was one of the memorable ones in 
Queens County and Mr. Bermel was elected 
president of the Borough of Queens by a large 
majority. Mr. Bermel was married October 21, 
1884, to Miss Mary A. Timmes, daughter of a 
prominent resident of the Second Ward. Two 
sons and three daughters were born to them. 

HONORABLE THOMAS M. QUINN, alder- 
man of the Sixty-sixth District, New York City, 
and a son of Michael and Mary Quinn, was 
born at Astoria Jiily 27, 1871. His father was 
one of General McClellan's assistants in the 
laying out of Long Island City. Mr. Quinn was 
educated in the public schools, the New York 
College of Veterinary Surgeons and the United 
States College of Embalmers. For some years 
he has been engaged in the profession of under- 
taking with offices located at 169 Fulton Avenue, 
Astoria. For a number of years Mr. Quinn has 
been prominently identified with public affairs; 
for a period of eleven years he was connected 
with the New York postoffice; was state exam- 
iner of horseshoers for four years and for six 
years was chief veterinary to the Health De- 
partment for Queens Borough. In November, 
1907, Mr. Quinn was elected a member of the 
Board of Aldermen from the Sixty-sixth Dis- 
trict and is now serving in that capacity. He is 
chairman of Queens County Independence 
League ; he was nominated by unanimous vote 
for alderman and was the only man on the In- 
dependent ticket elected in the state and the only 
man ever elected on that ticket in Long Island 
City. Mr. Quinn was at one time very promi- 
nent in Democratic circles and hjs always been 
prominently identified with every mpvement to 
promote the betterment of labor. He was or- 
ganizer of the Knights of Columbus in Queens 
County and is a prominent member of Colon 
Council of that order; he is a member of Sun- 
swick Council of Long Island City; the Long 
Island Aerie Eagles ; Astorial Council Hepto- 
sophs ; Astoria Lodge National Protective Asso- 
ciation ; Holy Name Society of the Church of 
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel ; the Joseph Geiser As- 
sociation, and is the standard bearer of the 
Thomas M. Quinn Association Independent Club. 
He is also a member of the United States Vet- 
erinary Society, and of the Queens County Un- 
dertakers' Association, the New York Postof- 
fice Protective Association and several other or- 
ganizations. In 1892 Mr. Quinn married Miss 
Sara McBride of Astoria; seven children have 
been born to the union, five of whom are living. 

WHAT ONE COMPANY DID FOR 
QUEENS. Developed 12,289 lots and spent 
$700,000 for improvements. Every one can see 



now what effect the tunnels and bridges across 
the East River will have on real estate in Queens, 
but at their inception their tremendous im- 
portance was not generally realized. It was four 
years ago this month, before any work was be- 
gun on the tunnels and bridges, that the Rickert- 
Finlay Realty Company began acquiring property 
in Queens. These properties comprise over 1,000 
acres of the most desirable residence property in 
the borough, and, with one exception, all are 
within the limits of New York City, and will be 
within from fifteen to twenty minutes of Broad- 
way when the tunnels and bridges are completed. 
Some idea of the magnitude of the company's 
holdings may be had from the fact that they have 
a combined street frontage of eighty-seven miles, 
and are nearly as large as all that part of Man- 
hattan lying south of Houston Street, and ex- 
tending from the East River to the Hudson Riv- 
er. The development of the properties is being 
carried out on a scale that has seldom, if ever, 
been equaled in the United States. Over thirty- 
nine miles of cement sidewalks and twenty-three 
miles of macadamized streets have been con- 
"structed; over seven miles of water mains, gas 
mains and sewers have been laid, and about 
12,000 shade trees and eighteen miles of hedges 
have been set out, at a total cost to date of over 
$700,000. The properties of the company begin 
with East River Heights, containing 2,470 lots 
fronting on the East River directly opposite East 
Ninety-sixth Street. Then come Broadway- 
Flushing, containing 4,000 lots completely sur- 
rounding the Broadway station in Flushing; 
Douglas Manor, containing 2,479 lots on Little 
Neck Bay at Douglaston, and Westmoreland, 
containing 900 lots adjoining Douglas Manor on 
the east. In addition to these properties which 
the company is actively developing, it has many 
unimproved tracts which it is holding for future 
development, among which are 440 lots in the 
heart of Long Island City, fronting on Broad- 
way, Grand Avenue and Jamaica Avenue, and 
2,000 lots just north of the station at Great Neck, 
lying between the Middle Neck Road and Man- 
hasset Bay. Its business has grown so rapidly 
that the company now occupies an entire floor at 
• No. 45 West Thirty-fourth Street, with seven- 
teen offices, an office force of about thirty-five 
employes and about fifty regular salesmen. — 
[New York American, February 2, 1908.] 

KISSENA PARK NORTH AND SOUTH 
will be the most completely and thor- 
oughly developed sections of the Borough when 
the work now being prosecuted by PARIS-MAC- 
DOUGALL COMPANY is completed. This 
company acquired about 300 acres in the South- 
erly part of Flushing. Running through the tract 
from North to South is the New York and 



166 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



Queens County trolley line and from East to 
West is the old Stewart Railroad, now tlie prop- 
erty of the Long Island Railroad, these two 
lines forming a junction on the property. With 
the completion of the improvements and elec- 
trification of the Long Island Railroad system 
now going forward, the Kissena Lake Park 
section will be the most accessible section in the 
Borough. Lying practically in the center of this 
large tract is Kissena Lake covering about 13 
acres. This deep clear pool of spring water with 
its out flowing brook and its high wooded banks 
makes it the most naturally beautiful spot in the 
Borough. This lake together with about sixty 
acres of upland was purchased by the city and 
turned over to the Park Department as Kissena 
Lake Park. In order to provide a section in 
keeping with these beautiful environments, no 
pains or expenses are being spared by the Paris- 
MacDougall Company in its development. 
Broad, paved streets and side-walks, with all 
streets curbed and guttered and sewered, and 
with a beautiful supply of rare shrubbery, all 
tend to make it a most delightful residential sec- 
tion. So large is this development (comprising 
about 4,400 lots), that restrictions are so adjusted 
as to provide sections to the requirements of prac- 
tically every class of Detached improvements from 
the Cottage on forty feet of ground to the more 
pretentious dwelling occupying a full block front, 
each being confined to its own particular section. 
So thorough, complete and comprehensive is this 
development that the Kissena Lake Park section is 
assured of being the most attractive and delight- 
ful portion of this Borough. 

TERMINAL HEIGHTS is another of the Par- 
is-MacDougall Company's developments, and is the 
closest lying development to the heart of Man- 
hattan in all Queens Borough, being no farther 
from Herald Square than is City Hall, Manhat- 
tan. This development comprises about 100 acres 
and is sub-divided into about 1,500 lots. A large 
amount of work is being done on this property 
for the purpose of bringing it to the city grade 
and laying it out in accordance with the topo- 
graphical maps of the Borough. Two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars is being expended in 
its development, said development including a 
complete sewerage system with all streets paved 
and curbed and guttered. The class of houses 
being and to be erected on this development is of 
the three, four and five-story flat and apartment 
house nature. This property lying as it is within 
five blocks ot the Terminal of the Sunnyside 
Yards and within about ten blocks of the entrance 
to the Blackwell's Island Bridge with Thompson 
Avenue bordering it on the south and Roosevelt 
Avenue, the new avenue established by the topo- 



graphical department and through which it is 
proposed to build the subway leading to Flush- 
ing, passing directly through its center. The 
Woodside Station of the Long Island Railroad 
is located within two blocks of this development. 
This together with the Corona trolley lineandthe 
Jackson Avenue trolley line and the Ninety-second 
Street Ferry trolley line all passing through and 
around it, makes it the most accessible develop- 
ment to be found in the Borough and insures 
its rapid occupation as a business and living room 
section. 

ELMHURST SQUARE is still another and the 
first of the Paris-MacDougall Company's develop- 
ments. One of the unique features of this section is 
the fact that geographically speaking it is the center 
of the four boroughs, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhat- 
tan and the Bronx. Passing through and around 
this property is Grand Street trolley of the Brook- 
lyn Rapid Transit System ; the Corona trolley of 
the Thirty-fourth and Ninety-second Street Ferry 
lines, being a part of the New York and Queens 
County Electric Railroad system; the North 
Shore Division of the Long Island Railroad with 
a station practically on the property, and the main 
line of the same railroad running to Jamaica. 
The development of this property is completed and 
in its completion an ample sewer system was in- 
stalled, streets were paved, trees and ornamental 
shrubbery planted, making of it an attractive de- 
velopment. Many Queen Anne detached houses 
have already been erected on this property. The 
Paris-MacDougall Company has taken the lead in 
complete developments, never being satisfied un- 
til the property is fully and completely graded in 
accordance with the established grades of the City, 
and complete sewerage system installed under the. 
supervision of the City, all streets paved, curbed 
and guttered and fine cement walks laid through- 
out. It is hoped that other developers will soon 
adopt this same thorough system. 

THE MARKERT REALTY COMPANY.— In 
the fall of 1905 this company was organized to 
develop what is now called "Forest Parkview." 
The development in the section between Ridge- 
wood and Richmond Hill w^as then in its infancy 
and the Markert Realty Company are to be num- 
bered among the pioneers. The "Forest Park- 
view" tract contained almost four hundred city 
lots covering about seven city blocks, extending 
from Ford Avenue to Winthrop Avenue with a 
frontage of about one thousand feet on Myrtle 
.Avenue and facing the main entrance to Forest 
Park. To demonstrate the thoroughness with 
which the development was carried out it is 
to be noted that the entire properly was improved 



HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS 



167 



with the finest macadam streets, cement sidewalks 
and curbs, handsome shade trees and sodded with 
grass, which was beautified here and there with 
large flower beds. Public utilities were installed 
within a short time by the laying of water mains, 
gas mains and the regulation city street-lights. All 
of these improvements were undertaken by the 
company at its own expense and it was their pride 
to sell the property to the individual purchaser with 
the distinct understanding that he would have no 
large assessments to cripple his finances after 
having made his purchase. The company erected 
about sixty houses of the two-family type, the 
architectural beauty of which add much to the 
natural beauty of this section. The houses are 
now occupied by a happy and contented body of 
people who find every comfort in their homes, 
and the great advantage of Forest Park for their 
outdoor enjoyment. The public golf links of 
Forest Park are directly opposite the "Forest 
Parkview" propertj' and the residents of this sec- 
tion relish the keen enjoyment of playing the 
"game of kings," over this beautiful course, while 
their children derive the benefit of good health 
and all freedom from restraint, romping over the 
greensward. The Markert Realty Company is 
managed by an energetic set of men headed by 
Albert Markert as president, Arthur R. Koch as 
secretary, Geoerge E. Loeffler as treasurer and 
one or the other of these gentlemen is always on 
hand at the office of the company to welcome 
visitors. The offices are situated at Myrtle Ave- 
nue and Dry Harbor Road and they are probably 
the best appointed real estate offices in this sec- 
tion of Queens. The company's investment rep- 
resents close to a quarter of a million of dollars 
and the plot is one of the finest to be found 
within the Ridgewood section. 

The company has also developed a very pretty 
piece of land in the Newtown section called 
"Cooper Heights," intended, mainly, for the Se- 
mitic race, and it has met with the same success 
that has attended "Forest Parkview." A mag- 
nificent tabernacle is now under way within a 
block of the "Cooper Heights" development and 
the section promises to be one of the most pop- 
ulous of the Borough of Queens. The Markert 
Realty Company were very fortunate to have the 
city select about half a block of their "Forest 
Parkview" property for a public school and 
onpe this public improvement is under way it 
promises to draw a legion of homeseekers to the 
"Forest Parkview" section. 

There are very few portions of the borough 
which poss_ess as much beauty of sur- 
roundings as "Forest Parkview'' and considering 



that it is within the five-cent fare limit of New 
York it ofifers ideal living conditions for the 
workingman. Forest Park is to-day larger and, 
undoubtedly, more beautiful than Central Park 
in the Borough of Manhattan, or Prospect Park 
in the Borough of Brooklyn, and the day is not 
far distant when property which borders on For- 
est Park will have reached the same value as the 
properties which now border Central Park and 
Prospect Park. The selection of "Forest Park- 
view" property for a school site was only made 
after a thorough canvass of other properties in 
this section. "Forest Parkview" was selected 
mainly because the natural lay of the land is very 
high, and building operations have practically 
made the school a necessity. It is also expected 
that a church will shortly be established on the 
"Forest Parkview" property, so that it is evident 
that the Markert Realty Company intend to make 
their property complete in itself. Several of 
their parcels which were originally sold on the 
instalment basis have changed hands two or 
three times, each change representing an increase 
of price until, to-day, lots which were purchased 
eighteen months ago have more than doubled in 
value. The- company does not encourage this 
speculative feature of the property, as it was 
planned for a home site and everything has been 
done to attract the homeseeker. 

They cannot, however, prevent a certain 
amount of speculation on the part of their 
clients, and it at least has the advantage of 
demonstrating how the values are rising. The 
Myrtle Avenue trolley system passes the prop- 
erty plying between the Ridgewood terminal and 
Richmond Hill and it is a common expression on 
the part of passengers in these cars to say : "Isn't 
that 'Forest Parkview' property a pretty place." 
First impressions are believed to be the most last- 
ing and in this respect "Forest Parkview" appeals 
with particular force to all classes and kinds of 
people who have an eye for beauty and cleanli- 
ness : this is particularly true with the women- 
kind who go into ecstasies over the trim appear- 
ance of the streets and lawns as well as the 
interior arrangements of the houses. In fact, the 
houses compare favorably with the elaborate 
dwellings found in the Flatbush section of 
Brooklyn and which sell for practically double 
the price asked for the "Forest Parkview" homes. 
Queens Borough may well be proud of the "For- 
est Parkview" development and it is to be hoped 
that the Markert Realty Company will extend 
their operations to other parts of the borough, 
because of the painstaking effort and thorough- 
ness with which they handle the work. 



ERRATA: On page 61 "Poppenhusen Institute, Flushing," should be "Poppenhusen Institute, College Point.' 



INDEX TO 

Portraits and Biographical Sketches 



Portrait 
on 

A Page 

Anderson, Gustavc 154 

Andrews, Francis E 152 

Ashmead, Warren B 143 

B 

IJeaumert, William Anthony 148 

Bermel, Hon. Joseph 115 

Merger, Carl 124 

Botjer, Henry C 159 

Bowne, Clifford B 107 

Booth, Henry Howard 155 

IJranden, Emanuel 124 

Bunting, James Ernest iig 

Burden, Theron H 119 

C 

Capone, Thomas C 163 

Coco, Peter M 136 

Connolly, Hon. Maurice E 127 

Connors, William 120 

Conroy, James F 107 

Copp, Charles W 123 

Cranston, George Bell 155 

Cutter, Late Bloodgood H 116 

Cutter, Residence of Late Bloodgood H. 1 16 

D 

Dalgleish, Robert M 135 

Davis, Bramwell 143 

De Bragga, Joseph H.. .-^ 124 

De Mela, William 107 

Derrick, D.D., Bishop W. B 149 

Dooly, Martin J 160 

Dowling, Thomas '. — 

Duer, Francis X 159 

E 

Everitt, William E 139 

F 

Fairchild, Elias A 130 

Fallon, John 160 

Flanagan, Joseph 151 

Flushing Storage Warehouse 154 

Frank, Philip 131 

Fogarty, Thomas Gervase 151 

Fredericks, Charles 140 

Frenz, George 159 

G 

Gallucci, Michael A 132 

Gallucci, Rocco J 132 

Gallucci, Samuel 133 

Gallucci, Louis 133 

Garbe, Conrad 139 

Garrison's Hotel — 

Garretson, Charles S 131 

Gelwicks, Harry R 107 

Gerlach, John Henry 155 

Gilroy, Hon. Eugene Charles 127 

Gould, Marquis D ^35 

Gresser, Lawrence 140 

H 

Hance, Charles 151 

Hicks, Henry Halford 147 

Harvey, Herbert S 127 

Healy, Hon. Edmund J 128 

Hemler, Joseph R 107 

Hemrich, John C 136 

Hill, George Washington 151 

Hogan, Jr., John J 159 

J 

Johnson, James H 139 

Jones, Daniel S 135 

K 

Keenan, Hon. Luke A 144 

Klein, William 144 



Biography 

on 

Page 

154 
138 
137 



117 
162 
130 
161 
112 
141 
130 
121 
118 



145 
162 
122 
155 
1 10 
118 
142 



142 
134 
129 
no 
149 
149 
154 
'S8 



113 
153 
133 

125 
142 
133 
■58 



126 
129 
129 
126 
134 
158 
141 
no 
:38 

122 
126 
121 



157 
146 
122 
122 

129 

'57 
153 



129 

114 



137 
126 



Portrait 

on 

Page 

Koch, Herman 152 

Kraemer. Frederick 147 

Kraemer, Philip J. F 147 

Kron, Edward 156 

Kugelman, Solomon — . 

L 

Lowerre, Thomas Baldwin 120 

Leahy, Patrick B — 

M 

McCormack, Thomas C 140 

McKnight,. H. Stewart 128 

McLaughlin, John J — 

Markert Realty Co — 

Maurer, Percival Edward — 

Meagher, Francis J 1 39 

Miller, Morris 160 

Morena, Charles — 

Moore, William Joseph 144 

Mulligan, James J 160 

MuUikin, Percival 107 

N 

Niederstein, John 140 

Noble, Wolcott 163 

O 

O'Leary, Denis 128 

P 

Paris-McDougall Co — 

Parmenter, Lester S 107 

Pechette, Albert Edward 156 

Peck, ID.D., Isaac 123 

Phillips, John M 131 

Piatt, Minor L 143 

Pople, George W 123 

Q 

Quinn, Joseph H 152 

Quinn, Hon. Thomas M 148 

R 

Rickert-Finley Realty Co — 

Ridenour, John H 104 

Ringe, Herman 131 

Ryan, J. Frank 13S 

S 

Schaefer, George W 148 

Skeene. Hon. Frederick 124 

Stillwaggon, Joseph B. ., 156 

Stillwaggon, George A 156 

Smith, Hon. Mathew J 128 

Sullivan, Hon. Joseph 152 

Sutphin, Hon. John H 119 

Swenson, Axel John 163 

Swenson, James Sydney 163 

Swezey, \'an Rensselaer — 

Thiry, John Henry 119 

Thomas, Rupert Barnes 123 

Todd, Thomas H I44 

Trapp, John J 143 

\'an Nostrand, David L 120 

Vossnack, Jr. Herman 148 

W 

Wallace, Dana 127 

Wille, Charles 136 

Williams, Richard H 136 

Willett, Henry 147 

Y 

Yaeger, Albert Maxfield 155 

168 



Biography 

on 

Page 

145 
150 
150 
158 
161 



134 
130 



■33 
121 
137 
166 
158 
■33 
'57 
161 
153 
161 
no 



130 

133 



165 
1 12 
158 
117 
138 
141 
117 



146 
165 



165 

■ 106 

130 

■50 



153 
117 
IS7 
154 
122 
146 
114 
145 
145 
157 
113 
114 
141 
125 



113 
137 



1^5 
129 
129 
117 



■45 



Index to General Illustrations 



Along The North Shore Road 

Armory 17th Sep. Co. N.G.N.Y., Flushing. 

Armory Hall .' 

Astoria Hospital 



Page 

lOI 

54 

■ ■ 95 

69 



R 

liathing Scene at College Point 

lilackwell's Island Bridge, Frontispiece 

lioard Walk and Beach, Arverne 

Board Walk, Rockaway 

Bowne Avenue, Flushing 

Bowne House {Built in 1661) 

Bowne Park, When Developement was Commenced. 

Bragaw House. Long Island City, The Old 

Broadway, Corner of Twentieth Street, Flushing. . . . 

Broadway, Elmhurst Square 

Broadway, Flushing 

Broadway, Flushing, Looking East 

Bryant High School, Dutch Kills 

Business Buildings in Flushing 



Carnegie Library, Astoria 

Carnegie Library, Richmond Hill 

Catholic Church, Astoria 

Colonial Hall, Jamaica 

Clinton Avenue, Jamaica, Looking South 

Church on Woolsey Street, Astoria 

Crocheron's Hotel (Burned in 1907) Once Boss 
Tweed's Headquarters 



D 
Debevoise Avenue School in East River Heights... 

Debevoise House, Long Island City, The Old 

Douglas Manor, Douglaston, Borough of Queens. 
Duryea House, Long Island City, The Old 



East River Heights 0pp. 96th Street, Manhattan. 

Elmhurst, L.I., Churches 

Elmhurst, L.I., Street Views 

Entrance to Douglas Manor 



Fac-Similes of The Flushing Journal 

Far Rockaway 

First Public School Erected in Flushing.... 

Flushing Bay 

Flushing's Big Oak 

Flushing Boat Club at Point Ruth 

Flushing Bridge 

Flushing Brancn Bank of Long Island 

Flushing Churches, Etc 

Flushing Creek Below the Bridge 

Flushing High School 

Flushing Homes 

Flushing Homes 

Flushing and Whitestone Homes 

Flushing Homes 

Flushing Homes 

Flushing Hospital and Dispensary 

Flushing Hospital '. 

Flushing Hotel 

Flushing Institute 

Flushing Pumping Station at Oakland Lake. 

Fulton Street, Jamaica 

Flushing Town Hall 



Garretson House (Built in 1659) 

Garrison's Hotel, Fort Totten, L.I 

Golf Links, Flushing Country Club 

Gosman House, Long Island City, The Old. 
Grace Church, Jamaica 



H 



High School, Jamaica 

High School, Richmond Hill 
Hillside Avenue, Jamaica . . 



I 

Interior Views of Office of Flushing Journal.. 
Ireland Mills. Among Oldest on Long Island. 



King Manor, Jamaica 

Kissena Lake, Near Flushing 

Kissena Lake, Flushing 

Kissena Lake, in Kissena Park 

Kissena Lake and Outlet 

Knickerbocker Yacht Club at College Point. 



43 
40 
10 
90 
33 
45 
9 
78 

14 
80 
46 



63 
66 
70 
53 
26 
70 



65 
41 



6 
30 
38 



93 
37 
74 
95 
29 
37 
65 
100 
34 
96 
99 
94 
95 
18 
90 
17 
95 
16 
95 



90 
57 
33 
42 

48 



S8 
58 
73 

1 1 1 
93 



53 
13 
27 
37 
81 
93 



L Page 

Long Island City High School, Astoria, The Old 69 

Local Office of Paris-McDougall Co., Elmhurst Ave.. 77 

Long Island Railroad Station and Ferry Slips 2s 

Lumber Yard, Storehouses, Docks, Etc., of Van R. 

Swezey Coal and Lumber Co., Bayside, Long Island 16 j 

M 

Main Street Looking North go 

Manhattan Opp. East River Heights Bet. 92nd and 

96th Streets f, 

Manhattan Opposite East River Heights, Bet. 96th 

and I loth Streets, Frontispiece 

Moore House, Long Island City, The Old 45 

N 

New Vernon Avenue Bridge (open) Long Island City 12 

Niantic Club, Flushing 95 

O 

Old Manor House in East River Park =,4 

Old Presbyterian Church, Newtown 56 

Original Flushing Free Library (now Removed) . . 95 

P 

Park at Corona 26 

Payntar House. Long Island City, The Old 49 

Poppenhusen Institute, College Point 61 

Presbyterian Church, Jamaica 51 

Public Library, Flushing 54 

Public School No. i. Long Island City 62 

Public School No. i, Dutch Kills 92 

Public School No. 22 65 

Public School No. 219, German Settlement, Long 

Island City 62 

Q 

Queens County Court House 102 

R 

Rapelye Mansion, Astoria, The 50 

Residences on Broadway opp. Elmhurst Square..., 85 

Residence of William T. Wilcox, Parsons Ave 33 

Residence of F. N. Lawrence, Bayside 33 

Real Estate Office of Charles Morena, Corona i6r 

S 

Sailing on Flushing Creek 93 

Sanford Avenue, Flushing 10 

Sanford Ave. Looking East From Lawrence Street. 33 

Scene in Kissena Park Showing Rustic Bridge 89 

Scene on River Front, Long Island City 25 

School House. Corona 112 

School on Van Alst Avenue one Block From East 

River Heights 66 

Shinnecock Democratic Club House, Flushing 73 

Shore Near Fort Totten, Willet's Point 93 

Soldiers' Monument 90 

State Normal School, Jamaica 35 

Stevens House, Long Island City, The Old 42 

St. Joseph's Orphanage, Flushing 74 

St. Mary's Church, Long Island City 24 

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Jamaica 19 

St. Patrick's Church, Dutch Kills 91 

Street View. Richmond Hill 98 

Street View in East River Heights Section 57 

Switchback Railroad. Rockaway Beach 28 

T 

The Old Block House, Hallett's Point 1814 loi 

The Rocky Shore, Corona 68 

The Shore Front of Douglas Manor 9 

The Woodhull Monument at Hollis 75 

Town Hall, Jamaica 102 

Two Family Houses, Terminal Heights 81 

V 

Van Pelt House, Long Island City, The Old 41 

Vernon Avenue, Long Island City, Looking Toward 

St. Mary's Church 20 

View of East River Heights and Manhattan 4 

\'iew From Terminal Heights 82 

W 

Washington House, Long Island City, The Old.... 50 

Woolsey Manor House, Erected about 1726, The Old 25 

Warwick Hall and Fire House, Corona 97 

Weeping Beech on Washington Place 93 

Willet's Point Road at Bayside 33 



169 



PRESS OF FLUSHING JOURNAL 
FLUSHING, N. Y. 



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